A handful of illustrative bees accompany the collection of scrolls…

The Bees

Collections and conversations from The Bee Trees and time spent as Artist in Residence at Willowtail Springs, Mancos CO

The Bees

In the spring on the sun soaked, rich, red dirt that held my body, stuck in my hair and remains in my pockets and heart, I lay with the wild honeybees that carried me to their trees and changed a cold concept of nature and service into a warmth and harmony worth sharing. I began my studies of pollination while carving wax for sculptural jewelry, hoping to find a recipe that would lighten the process and embrace the natural inspiration within the lines, I found beeswax. Diving into the science and conversation of honeybees, I reached out to Willowtail Springs where I found the space, wild honeybee trees and time to develop a process that shared the beauty of pollinators. Inspired by the quiet and hum of life, by the accumulation of creatures that make life possible, and by the ripples in the lake that found their way onto handmade papers and scrolls, this series of pollinators was created over the course of several years. The illustrations are detailed meditations on life, the natural world we share, lines and repetition. The scrolls, all painted at Willowtail Springs, were created in a temporal process with honey-based watercolor, ink, charcoal, wine and tea.