For Cassandra Bohne-Linnard, transformation is more than an artistic theme. It is part of her own story.

Known professionally as Cassandra Bohne-L, the native Houstonian spent years balancing a corporate career, family responsibilities and a desire to create. What began as a personal passion for painting eventually developed into a recognizable body of work encompassing contemporary abstract paintings, preserved-butterfly displays and luxury clocks.

Today, her work can be found in galleries, exhibitions and private collections, as well as at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

A Houston Story From the Beginning

Cassandra is a native Houstonian who has been painting with oils and acrylics for more than 25 years.

She began painting while attending college, teaching herself through practice instead of formal art training. For years, art remained a creative outlet alongside her corporate career.

After retiring from the corporate world, Cassandra devoted more of her time to raising her young family. That period provided the space for her artistic voice to develop more fully.

Rather than separating family life from her creative journey, Cassandra’s biography suggests that the slower, more reflective season helped her recognize the direction her art was meant to take.

“I think I was around 18 or 19 and I just had the urge to paint,” she recalled in an interview about her early creative years. “I just couldn’t stop painting.”

The Butterfly That Changed Her Direction

A turning point arrived when Cassandra painted Freedom, an abstract oil painting centered on a blue butterfly.

The experience drew her deeper into the natural colors, patterns and symbolism of butterflies. She began studying different species and experimenting with ways to incorporate real, preserved butterflies into her work.

Her early experiments included cloches, shadow boxes and mixed-media pieces. Eventually, those ideas developed into one of her signature creations: functional art clocks featuring sustainably sourced preserved butterflies.

Each butterfly is selected for its natural color and pattern. The specimens are arranged without artificially changing their appearance, allowing the butterfly itself to remain at the visual center of the piece.

“The timeless beauty of real butterflies resurrected through art” became the trademark phrase behind her work and the philosophy of Blue Butterfly Designs.

Art That Preserves a Moment in Time

Cassandra’s butterfly clocks combine fine art, preservation and functional design. Her cloches create intimate displays, while her clocks place the delicate beauty of butterflies within objects designed to become part of a home or collection.

No two pieces are exactly alike because no two butterflies are identical.

“What I strive to do is bring my butterflies to life through my art,” Cassandra explained. “They’re preserved and will last forever in this preserved state.”

Her creations have been sold through the Houston Museum of Natural Science and presented in fundraising auctions supporting organizations including the Houston Grand Opera, the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Alzheimer’s Association.

Her work has also been displayed through Houston galleries and arts organizations, including Bisong Art Gallery and Sawyer Yards.

Beyond the Butterflies

Although butterflies remain an important part of Cassandra’s creative identity, her work extends beyond preserved specimens.

Her contemporary paintings use luminous colors, organic shapes and dreamlike natural imagery. Trees, flowers, moons and imagined landscapes appear throughout her canvases, frequently representing resilience, renewal, personal growth and the connection between physical and spiritual life.

Her 2025 solo exhibition, The Wings of Beauty, at Silver Street Studios explored many of these themes. The butterfly served not simply as an object of beauty, but as a symbol of hope, rebirth and the ability to emerge from one season of life into another.

In 2026, the Texas Discovery Gardens selected Cassandra’s work for The Garden Beyond Time, an exhibition examining nature, light and the unseen connections among living things.

Creating a Place Within Houston’s Arts Economy

Cassandra’s impact is also entrepreneurial.

Through Blue Butterfly Designs and Cassandra Bohne-L. Fine Art, she has developed an identifiable creative brand, introduced an unconventional form of functional art and built relationships with galleries, museums, collectors and nonprofit organizations.

Her career illustrates how Houston’s creative economy is built—not only through major institutions, but through individual artists who develop original ideas, take those ideas into the marketplace and steadily build an audience around their work.

Her story also challenges the idea that a successful creative career must follow a straight path. Cassandra’s years in the corporate world, her dedication to family and her return to artistic work all contributed to the business and body of work she leads today.

A Houston Artist Focused on Transformation

The butterfly’s life cycle has long represented change, but in Cassandra’s work, transformation does not mean abandoning what came before.

Her art preserves beauty while giving it a new form. Her career similarly brings together each part of her life—the young self-taught painter, the corporate professional, the mother, the entrepreneur and the working Houston artist.

Through that evolution, Cassandra Bohne-Linnard has created something recognizably her own: art that asks viewers to pause, look closely and remember that even the most delicate things can leave an enduring impression.

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