Art Activism -wahoo!

Since last November I have been dropping hints to Houston Chronicle writer Molly Glentzer to write a native bee article. Earlier this week she called to talk about native bees. Some of the information I talk about when I talk about bees is alarming. She asked if I knew a locacal native bee athaurity, I did not. She said she could find one.
Here article came out today. Sadly she did not mention my bee art activism but the native bee specialist confirmed everything I have been saying. And yes It is alarming. Knowledge is power. - plant native non hybrid plants, blue, purple, yellow and white primarily. Starting the conversation with art activism.

her awesome article is below.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/gardening/article/Your-Houston-garden-needs-native-bees-15287310.php

COVID 19

The last almost three weeks have been emotionally challenging for everyone. That said I am very fortunate that no one close to us is sick and for that I am very grateful. I do have friends who have very sick people in their family. It is hard to hear their pain. I tear up just thinking about how many people this second are worried about next breath. I am trying not to think of it- it is too painful.

I am trying to keep myself busy and stitching is very therapeutic. I am free stitching bee habitats onto a stained jean jacket and getting a lot of dog walks in. We lost our oldest male labrador Goose to kidney failure last week. He is missed. The timing was bad as he brought us a lot of joy.

The jean jacket

My sweet Goose watching me work in the yard a few years back.

Azalea Trail and wild native bees

This summer it came to my attention that the River oaks Garden Club was having a luncheon with a bee theme. I quickly reached out to their luncheon Chair and she connected me to their environmental chairman. They came to my studio and we talked about the 4,000 wild bees species and how most people only know about honey bees.

Long story short I was invited to talk about the bees at their annual Azalea trail fundraiser. They were Slammed with people. I spoke none stop on Sunday from 11-5.

In addition the environmental chairs decided to work the native bee (the endangered bees) story into their both at their garden show this spring. It is organizations and ladies like these that can save the wild bees.

Image courtesy of Janna Webber

Falling through the bee looking glass #1

In the past years, blogging about my art practice was something I did every day. It is how I document my work. Then I started focusing on bees. At first, it was bees and the weed killer Glyphosphate.

The above pieces we're done in response to learning that Glyphosphate does not kill bees but impacts their immune system. With compromised immune systems bees subcome to disease. Glyphosphate is also now well known for causing cancer. I then made a five flip lenticular from these three images.

Bee fossils- inspiration

Studying our past is an incredible learning tool. With that in mind, I found the below article about the oldest bee fossil.

https://www.livescience.com/amp/4255-oldest-bee-fossil-creates-buzz.html

https://tmm.utexas.edu/sites/default/files/Amber%20Activity%202019.pdf

Coincidentally I just made a mold of a fossil for personal reasons. Reading this article is inspiring some new ideas that will involve the fossil mold and bees.

Osmia Texana - the berry bee

Osmia Texana - The Berry Bee This frantic bee is about as big as a housefly. If you look at one with a macro lens you can see they are a beautiful metallic blue. The underside of their abdomen is a fuzzy pollen mop. These pollen magnets are the perfect shape to collect pollen from blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, melons, and veggies, to name a few. They are not picky pollinators.

A single Texana Bee frantically visits 20,000+ blossoms per day, whereas a honey bee visits 50-1000. They are not- aggressive and non-colonizing, solitary bees.

They emerge in the spring and have an average pollinating season of 6-8 weeks, after which they die. Their offspring will hibernate over the winter and emerge the following spring.

They are found on both the central and North American continent.

Watercolor monotype 44” X 30.”

The ghost

SITE Gallery- Sculpture Month Houston - Installing the work - my pregame plan

With lots of time spent preparing to install my work, installing it went by quickly.

During the days prior to the installation, I imagined trying multiple compositions of the pre-assembled sections, spending lots of time looking at it, adjusting it, and tweaking it and then adding smaller elements to tie the work together... and repeating the same process over and over until I was satisfied it was finished. That was my pre-game mental plan.

Once the support structure was in place, secure, and painted, it was time to install the work. First, I hung the two pieces I knew would be part of this work. I then looked at the way the shadows were falling on the concave surface of the wall and hung the two end pieces. It was then late in the day, and I decided to call it a day and decide what the next step was with fresh eyes in the morning.

The next day I showed up early in the day ready to sit, look and make changes that would be best for the work on the concave wall of a silo. I was excited to see the curator, Volker Eisele, in the parking lot when I arrived. I invited him to come take a look at my progress. 

Smiling he said, "You are done, it is finished." I was really happy that he was pleased, really happy. I was also surprised. Finishing this early was not my game plan. Yikes! It isn’t easy for me to mentally change my game plan. I think Volker could see this in my face, and as he walked away, he said, "You know my name is on this too, it is good." I completely understood and reminded myself how lucky I was that he liked it.

A good problem.🙂

ps. I now have the equivalent of another silo full of work in my studio………. bursting at the seems. Anyone need a keystone animal environmental installation?

SITE Gallery Houston

Behind and attached to the Silos at Sawyer Yards

The lobby of the SITE Gallery Houston with the mechanicals of the grain silo in place. Just the coolest

Green marks the spot

Sculpture Month Houston

In May I started seeking a space to exhibit new environmental, 4D kinetic sculptures. I hoped to use this new work as a start to an art installation inspiring conversations about topics I am very passionate about; the unexpected consequences of forcing natural processes into an industrial model and the complex relationships between humans, plants, and animals. 

The stars aligned in July when Sculpture Month Houston’s founder and curator, Volker Eisele, invited me to be one of the 19 artists asked to create a site-specific sculpture in the historic Success Rice Grain Silos behind the Sawyer yard’s artist studios. In the 50th anniversary year of man landing on the moon, this year’s exhibit title is Outta Space from the 2012 Van Halen album A Different Kind of Truth. Outta Space will combine two curatorial themes: one features work focused on environmental degradation issues and the other focuses on interpretations and explorations of Alternative Worlds as envisioned in the fantasies of the artists. 

I have passionately committed myself to this installation every day since July. My passion comes from spending my early years on a farm in west Texas, from my concerns regarding industrialized food and its effect on our health, from my love for historic buildings and, most importantly, from my desire to make an impact on the return of our most important keystone species. 

As a site specific installation artist my aspiration is to create a piece that is unique to the silo’s space and true to my work. My silo is a circular space constructed from cinder blocks, 18’ in diameter and spans 20’ in height. It has, in the center of the space a 10’ tall funnel suspended from the ceiling. There are a few old, large light fixtures, conduit runs vertical and perpendicular on the walls and there are three entrances to the space. I have three weeks to install the work that I have assembled to date. My mantra as an artist is “if I am not nervous to take on a new project then I am not stretching myself”. I am slightly anxious, yet happy to embrace the butterflies and honored to have my name listed among this year’s SMH artists.

In celebration of the opening there will be food trucks, a bar and music provided by Chapel In The Sky with projections by Michael Walrond - SHDWSOFDUST. 

OUTTA SPACE

Public Opening for the Exhibition 

Saturday, October 12, 6-9 pm

SITE Gallery Houston, 

1502 Sawyer St. Houston, TX 77007, 

(The multi-story building behind the artist studios facility).

https://glasstire.com/2016/11/04/the-problems-and-rewards-of-houstons-silos/

https://glasstire.com/2017/10/30/a-conversation-about-art-and-the-silos-on-sawyer/

Watermelons cucumbers and bees

https://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/factsheet_watermelon_pollination.pdf

Without bees we would not have cucumbers or watermelons

Today harvest at the farmers market.

Tomato cage sculpture material

I ran to Southland hardware to purchase more wire cloth for my installation and spied some tomato cages. Wondering if they could add to my palette of materials I took home a few to play with.

Tomato cages

Squish, squash, twist, turn, fold, pull, cut repeat

Throw on a rip of charged screen for garnish

Play some more.

I ran out of time today but I feel like it might have some potential.

Bombus Affinis - looking back and comparing

I ran into the print making room to drop off some new paper. I took the opportunity to see how the last 6 compared to each other and how multiple bees might look together. I will do one more experiment and the plan the grouping.

I am really liking these 6 today. I don’t think they are your typical rendering of a bee. Any thoughts? I am glad I took the time to look at these as a group. They are inspiring me to make several different bees from different views in this same technique and showing them together. I am getting some interesting ideas of how to do it.

i will do one more experiment first.  

Embracing Bombus Affinis

I have decided to make a large monotype of the first bee in the US to be listed on the endangered species list. I was looking online for a photo that would accurately depict the Bombus Affinis. Searching, I came across the USGS site. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is a science bureau within the US Department of the Interior. The USGS provides science about the natural hazards that threaten lives and livelihoods; the water, energy, minerals, and other natural resources we rely on; the health of our ecosystems and environment; and the impacts of climate and land-use change. It is a great resource. They have developed a Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Program. Part of the program is to develop identification tools for native bee species. Taking and collecting accurate and detailed photos of the native bees. The over 4,000 images are freely available for the public to use. Looking at these up close detailed photos I was amazed to see how beautiful these tiny beings are. Their beauty rivals that of any creature on the planet. I looked at bees for an hour, in awe at their stunning uniqueness. The opportunity to work from such close up photos is exciting. It will also be challenging, I normally work from bad photos. I like poor quality photos because I don’t want to get bogged down by the details. My work is about the physical or emotional energy. These photos are works of art already. I have in my head what I want my abstraction to look like. I am just not exactly sure I know how I am going to achieve it. Step one is to experiment with my process and technique and develop a mark making that captures the elegance, majesty and energy of these tiny busy beasts.

Below are the first four days of experimenting. It has been a struggle to loosen up and not get bogged down by the details. The last one I like the most, I was just making marks and not worrying about if it resembled Bombus Affinis. That works best for me.

Bombus Affinis I

30” X 44” watercolor monotype

Day 1-

When working in color, the ink looks much darker and muted on the plate than when printed on paper. My first impression of Bombus Affinis I was that the paint was too heavy, too bright just  too much all the way around. The ghost was too light. I want my Bombus to express the lightness, fragility and majesty  of the bee. 

Wing detail from Bombus Affinis I

Bombus Affinis I ghost

30” X 44” watercolor monotype

Day 2-

I like the big black brush strokes, the antennae, but I do not like that both wings have the same weight. I want the back wing to be in more motion and fainter. When I look back at the work from day one, I am feeling better about parts of it. I like the wings and the last sections of his abdomen. Below are some close up shots of the parts I like of both days’ experiments.

Bombus Affinis II 30” X 44” watercolor monotype

Day 2 antenna

Day 3 - layering the different processes. I am closer to what I want but I am not there yet.

Bombus Affinis III

A favorite moment in Bomus Affinis III

a tail, leg and two wings

Bombus Affinis III ghost

Bombus Affinis IV

Bombus Affinis V

Day 4

Below are some moments I especially like. Today anyway.

Finally I am loosening up. I want an image of the bee’s energy - I want the life, movement and energy of a fuzzy pollinator even if he is endangered. I do not want a drawing of a bee.

Top of Head and thorax

Mauvish/brown/black bee eye and thorax

The fuzzy tail and two delicate wings

My work space

Leftover ink in the trey- Inspiration for a bee wing.

Sewing 🐝 #4 experiment for possible community project.

Sewing 🐝 #4

This piece is a conversation starter. The bee on this cap is the Bombus Affinis or commonly known as the Rusty Patch bumble bee. This bee was listed on the endangered species list in 2017. It is the first U.S. bee to be listed.

Finished piece.

No planing just winging it. It explains why that antenna is so BIG

This fuzzy little body needs some wings.

Detail of wing and legs

I need to delete the giant antennae.

Copy added

Every bee needs some pollen in the air.

After I finished and stood back I was not pleased. It was too busy, too much. Today I took out Impact. It feels better, I will live with it and maybe take out Endangered and the pollen and plant pieces.

Is destitching a word?

Nine things that can help #savethebees

1. Plant a pollinator garden 

2. Pull weeds or better yet go native, as many weeds and wild flowers are food for bees. 

3. Do not use herbicides to kill weeds. Bees live in the ground and neonicotinoids kill microflora in bee guts, making them less tolerant to bee disease. 

4. Find natural ways to combat mosquitos. Many urban beekeepers tell me their hives suffer when city mosquito trucks spray and when their neighbors install mosquito misting systems. 

5. Become an urban beekeeper.  

6. Buy local honey that is not mixed with corn syrup. 

7. Provide a water source. 

8. Buy local organic food. 

9. Spread the word.

Sewing 🐝 #4 experiment for possible community project.

Sewing 🐝 #4

This piece is a conversation starter. The bee on this cap is the Bombus Affinis or commonly known as the Rusty Patch bumble bee. This bee was listed on the endangered species list in 2017. It is the first U.S. bee to be listed.

Finished piece.

No planing just winging it. It explains why that antenna is so BIG

This fuzzy little body needs some wings.

Detail of wing and legs

I need to delete the giant antennae.

Copy added

Every bee needs some pollen in the air.

After I finished and stood back I was not pleased. It was too busy, too much. Today I took out Impact. It feels better, I will live with it and maybe take out Endangered and the pollen and plant pieces.

Is destitching a word?

Nine things that can help #savethebees

1. Plant a pollinator garden 

2. Pull weeds or better yet go native, as many weeds and wild flowers are food for bees. 

3. Do not use herbicides to kill weeds. Bees live in the ground and neonicotinoids kill microflora in bee guts, making them less tolerant to bee disease. 

4. Find natural ways to combat mosquitos. Many urban beekeepers tell me their hives suffer when city mosquito trucks spray and when their neighbors install mosquito misting systems. 

5. Become an urban beekeeper.  

6. Buy local honey that is not mixed with corn syrup. 

7. Provide a water source. 

8. Buy local organic food. 

9. Spread the word.

Technique experiment for endangered bees.

Bee technique experiment

Bombus Affinis - listed on the Endangered list 2017

Detail of head with a big white eye, thorax antenna and leg

Th ghost of Bombus Affinis

One is to heavy and ones too light. That is how they look to me wet. It is too soon to judge.

Glyphosate lenticular- trying to get it right

 I printed a lenticular from my three mono-prints of a dead bee. I decided to loop the images. That was a mistake when it comes to creating imagery that speaks to extinction. There is no loop and no second chance. With that in mind, I am trying for proof #2 with out a loop of image number 2.

I think this will work 🐝