My Grandma was an avid flower and vegetable gardener. Thinking back that's one of the many things, that I loved so much about her and her home. She always had the most beautiful flowers and eating a fresh garden salad when everything was home grown, well there's nothing like it. When my husband and I got married and settled into our new life together one of our biggest and most proud accomplishments that we've done together is making our backyard into a beautiful, park-like setting (as my husband likes to call it) to enjoy in the Summer. This meant digging up a lot of old vine-like, and prickly things and cultivating it over the years (it's still a work in progress) into a beautiful flower garden, with brick pathways, gardens and a patio.
One of the things that I've noticed through the years while gardening are the bees. The bees are happily doing their pollen dance amongst all of the blooms while we are nearby. We can even be eating at the table that is less than a foot away and they don't bother us. So we don't bother them either. We just observe. I used to think, "oh those pesky bees" and wanted no part of them. That has all changed. I read a wonderful article last year about bees and how important they are to our environment. Now I have an even greater appreciation for the little buzzers.
Ever since then, I've been thinking about those bees. This time of the year, when I'm so tired of minimal sunshine, and the lack of color outdoors, I like to look back at the photos that I've taken from the Summer. I'm always in awe at how amazing nature can be, especially the breath-taking colors and even the tiny details in each shape, petal and stem of each flower. It still amazes me how in just a few months, a tiny seedling turns into a awe-inspiring flower and just keeps getting bigger and stronger and more beautiful as the Summer marches on.
I've been compelled to do an illustration with bees ever since I read that article last Summer -- but I just wasn't sure how I wanted to take the project. It sat in my notes in my sketchbook, "do something for the bees" until this week. On a daily basis, I'm inspired by so many things. Right now I love scientific style illustrations and charts, which of course fits into the nostalgic nature of most of my work. I'll let you in on a few interesting tidbits that I believe motivated this piece of work. We recently just redesigned our bathroom and many of the decor items that I've chosen for our bathroom have by chance (or is it?), have had the honeycomb pattern. I also commissioned a local artist and friend,
Genna Cowsert to do a beautiful, digital illustration piece for our bathroom with the pattern too! Lastly, over the holidays I spied and purchased some earrings for myself (which I told myself I wouldn't shop for myself because it was Christmas but I did it anyway), at the
Detroit Urban Craft Fair where I was a vendor, that again also have the honeycomb pattern. Then just yesterday around the time I was going to post my bee illustration. Ka-winky-dink? Nah, I don't think so. I think the bees are calling to me and obviously I'm drawn to them too. So you see this really meant to BEE! :)
I'm going to offer this piece in two sizes. 1
1x14 and 13x19. The tiny details just are not suited for a smaller 8x10 print. That being said, I'm going to offer cards (singles + sets) without the scientific information on them.
I'm not a soapbox kinda gal, but I promise you one thing if you plant some flowers this year, you'll be so proud of your yard, even if it's just a few pots of flowers, and you'll be doing a small part to help our with our environment and our friends the bees.
