Stitching a Sweat bee and incorporating time and movement

Another day of social distancing and not being able to get in my studio. Today's stitching, I added the first of several sweat bees. In reality, they are only about 1/4 ” long. They have beautiful metallic greens and blues. I am working to show more time and movement in my stitching.

I added a tiny sweat bee - he is moving fast and as a result blurry

First I cut some thread of the colors I want the bee to be.

Next I wad them up into a cocoon.

Then I untangle them into the shape of the movement of a bee.

Then I stitch them into the shape of the movement.

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.

SITE Gallery- Sculpture Month Houston - Building the support system

Finally, I feel like I can make some progress. Step one is to make a structure that I can hang my sculptures from. The gallery owners are trying to preserve the space in its original condition, and ask the artists to deface the silo as little as possible when installing our work. Normally I use acrylic hangers that I designed to hold the pieces. Each bracket takes four anchors. I feel like that is too much destruction to the silo. Instead, I decide to buy some black 14 gauge wire fencing, 20 feet X 36”. The silo funnel has metal bands tack welded to it. The middle metal band is 31” from the wall. I cut the fencing in 31” pieces. I cut one end in a concave shape and the other end convex. The convex end will rest on top of the metal band and the concave end will be supported by two screws in the cinderblock wall. This is 19‘ high, and I feel pretty good that my screw holes will only be minimally defacing the silo.

Close up of support system

The moment I got off the scissor lift and looked up at my support system, I realized I had made a big mistake. I should have painted them white. The black stood out too much on the white walls. I could not sleep that night trying to decide if I should repaint them... It was not easy, but I spent the next half day painting the system 19’ in the air white.

I think it was worth it, the support system is much less intrusive.

I hung from the support system 8 fishing tackle swivels with 25 lb filament attached to each swivel. Four of the swivels are 36” apart 18” from the wall. At these distances the pieces will not touch each other or the wall. Everything should move independently. These are for the big pieces. The other swivels are for smaller pieces and are spaced randomly. I am guesstimating where I want these. Tomorrow I will start hanging work.

Packing the hanging pieces for transporting to the silos.

Last week I spent everyday packing and boxing the pieces I made this summer. I needed boxes they could hang in. Regular wardrobe boxes are not wide enough, so I made my own wardrobe style boxes to transport the sculpture pieces. I took two 30” X 30” X 30” boxes, stacked them and taped them to make them 78” tall.

Then I wrapped each element of each piece in thin plastic dry cleaning bags and kitchen zip lock bags. I don’t want any thing getting tangled. Each little section is in its own plastic cocoon.

Each small element bagged separately making bouquet of bee cocoons

Making my own wardrobe style boxes.

My pieces hang from the top of the boxes. I needed something to support the top of the box. Southland hardware yard sticks were the cheapest thing I could find. I think they will work.

My sculpture wardrobe boxes have doors.

The pieces in bags make awesome amnion shadows

7 boxes ready to go.

My new best friend’s name is Scissor Lift- Another day setting up my silo to work.

I am so grateful to not have to deal with that 19’ tall scaffold. It was very difficult to maneuver in the space with the mouth of the funnel hanging in the center of the space. Aztec picked up the awkward scaffold today, and they delivered my new best friend, scissor lift. Getting the scissor lift in my silo was not a simple processes. Electrical conduit hangs below the door frames of the silos between my silo and the delivery door. As a result the delivery man had to drive the scissor lift through 8 other silos to get to mine. It fit in the door of my silo exactly with not a pinch to spare. The scissor lift rubbed the top of the opening.

My safety engineer and the most supportive husband anyone could ask for. He is affectionately known as Mr.Safety. 🤗

The view of my silo workspace from the scissor lift.

Detail of grid system.

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

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.

7 days left

7 days left to rip and wrangle rusted wire cloth, then delicately stitch the wire fragments into biospheres of frail and vulnerable abstract wild bees and organic shapes. Then coat hydro stone and cast shadows, to kinetically unveil the unintended consequences of forcing natural processes into an industrial model. Then pack, transport, unpack, install for 21 days, and open........ find more locations to install......... rinse and repeat.

The honey bee is (as American as apple pie) not a native bee in the US.

Like apples, honey bees were introduced to North America in the 17th Century by the European settlers. Prior to the arrival of the European settler’s honey bee, native insects and bees handled the task of pollination in the new world. In the early 1600´s, the honey bee was brought to North America for honey production and beekeeping became a commercial and profitable occupation.

My next post will be honey bees vs native bees. #savethenativebees

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.

Private viewing of Hiram Butler Gallery

On July 24th, Alexander Squier https://www.alexandersquier.com/, the head of the the MFAH Glassell Studio School printmaking department, arranged for our printmaking class to get a private viewing of the Hiram Butler Gallery http://hirambutler.com/ print collection. It was a treat! We even got a peak at the cottage at the back of the property. Below are a few pictures from the day. All the work we looked at was exceptional and the Jacob Hashimoto  wood Block prints are really something to see. Next time you go ask to see the work in the cottage. FYI- the garden is prime for a planting of pollinator plants and housing a bee condo for bumbles.

I find this tiny piece inspiring, it is giving me bee wing ideas.

Leaving I saw this huge pile of bamboo waiting for the city of Houston’s trash collectors to pick it up. I immediately text Doug Welch to ask for permission to rob it of enough sticks to make done native bumble bee houses.

if I am lucky I can convince Curtis to take this project on. 🤞 I am hyper focused on my installation and completely buzzed to bee.

Josh Pazda was so knowledgeable about the work and so generous with his time. I am never really comfortable in a gallery but Josh is so approachable and interested in what we wanted to see, It was a great gallery experience.

Five eyes

Bees have five eyes. They have three small ocelli eyes on the top of their head, they are simple lenses that discern light intensity. They also have two very large compound eyes that contains about 6,900 facets on the sides of their head. I thought the below monoprint of Bombus Affinis (Rusty Patch) bumblebee did a good job of showing the facets.

Bombus Affinis II compound eye detail.

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.  

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.

The Bees Needs

 “Modern farm economics have created an enormously productive system of genetically engineered, chemically dependent agriculture. But it relies on just one domesticated insect to deliver a third of the food on our plate.

And that insect is dying, a victim of the very food system that has come to depend on it.” - Josephine Marcotty, Star Tribune 

 http://static.startribune.com/news/legacy-apps/bees/

What the bees needs- Where you spend your grocery dollars matters, supporting local, organic farmers is supporting bees.  

Glyphosate

44” X 30” water color monotype  

The image above is the first piece I created in this body of work. I hope to start a buzz with urbanites regarding the ramifications of food purchasing habits, yard weed control and pest control in regards to the bee. 

 You can help the bees by letting our government know how you feel about our current situation. See the link below.

https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0361-2340 

Sewing 🐝 road trip to Roam Ranch

I stitched endangered species on our  road trip to Roam Ranch near Fredericksburg. My supportive husband Curtis did the driving so I could stitch. 

I free stitched it and you can tell. Why make it by hand if you want it perfect, right?. It does look better than my regular handwriting but that isn’t saying much. 

The trip was an incredible experience; worthy of a well thought out post just on the Ranch and the stewards of the land and animals - Taylor, Katy, Cody and Julia.

One for the home team-conservationist win, we thought.

“12 neociotinoid pesticides are pulled from the market”- Muenster Enterprise

I can home Wednesday night a few weeks ago and found a newspaper clipping sitting at my place on our kitchen island. The clipping is from the Muenster Enterprise, a weekly newspaper from my husband’s hometown Muenster, Texas. Curtis reads it every week to keep up with his many cousins. He saved me the article because it reports great news for bee lovers. 

Besides 12 neonicotinoids being pulled off the shelves the EPA is now required to analyze the impact of the entire class of neonicotinoids on endangered species.   

This morning in my notices I read very disappointing news about the EPA.Even after loosing lawsuits the EPA finds ways to authorize use of chemicals that harm bees. See the below link.

https://secure.everyaction.com/vPOTL2gZnky8MGnqDAJEbA2

 Glysophate  

Artspace111 6th Annual Regional Juried Exhibition

Artspace 111 report the the artist that Hilde selected 59 artist out of 1300. Man! I feel lucky to be included. 

Sewing bee- Boundary Waters canoe area wilderness

Our son, daughter-in-law and grand dog just moved to Minneapolis. They are very adventuresome and planned a car trip with/for us to the boundary waters of their new state to hike and canoe. My daughter-in-law Alex is very supportive and helpful with my art, especially as it relates to the environment. She is the project manager at nRhythm and works closely with the Organic Consumers Association, Regeneration Canada, Regeneration International, and the Savory Institute, to name a few. Also, Griffin recently completed his MBA and is continuing his environmental work through industry. They have both been to several climate change meetings and know their way around that world. I knew Alex would be excited to help draw (or in this case stitch) attention to the plight of the bee and the impact glyphosate is making on the bees' intestinal flora.
Once we landed in Minneapolis we had a 4-hour-plus drive to our cabin. I suggested to Alex we have a driving sewing bee. She was all in. This time I supplied Madewell lined linen caps.

Map of the Boundary Waters north of Minneapolis  

the Madewell linen cap is a nice neutral color and has a leather adjustable strap. 

I like this cap because the inside of the cap is lined and that makes it easy to hide the unsightly underside of the stitching.

Above: Alex is stitching away with me as my son and husband caught up in the drive to the Boundary Waters. We discussed the Rusty Patch bumble bee, which is now on the endangered list, being one of the most important pollinators of the Northeast and northern Midwest US.

my cap - bee eyes, head and tongue 

Above- I am adding the bee thorax. This is the section the bee the wings and legs are anchored on. 

The best pollinators are extremely fuzzy. I want my bee to be an excellent pollinator so I am layering lots of randomly placed stitches in black and several different yellows. 

Above- More layers - it appears my thorax is too big for my head and eyes. I will fix that later. 

Below is some bee information we stumbled on at The End of The Trail Nature Museum . 

Here I am working on the wings and tiny legs. Stitching in a car on a curvy bumpy road is sketchy. 

I have decided I want this bee to be the Rusty Patch bumble bee so I am adding a  bit of orange/rust on the back of its abdomen. 

 https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/05/31/bombus-affinis-meet-the-rusty-patched-bumblebee-new-state-bee-minnesota

Alex’s bee was looking great I am hoping she will post a picture when she finishes.  

Below are some images from the rest of the trip.  

Griffin, Alex and Grito canoeing at Clearwater lake.  

The four of us after climbing to the top of the cliff across the lake from our cabin.  

Alex, Grito and Griffin Klement 

My soul mate checking out Clearwater lake. 

A river stop to test the possibility of one more fishing opportunity on our drive back.  

Above- strawberry plant

I would like to come back when the wild strawberry plants have fruit. Strawberries are self pollinating, their flowers are hermaphroditic. Each strawberry flower contains the male and the female pistil. That said without pollinators they produce 50% less fruit than with pollinators.  strawberries need bees too. 

Above- wild onions

Honey bees and bumble bees both visit onion blooms. 

and of course we made S’more memories.  The trip would have been perfect if our daughter could have joined us. 

We will miss these three.