It seems like an auspicious day to check in about what I have been up to in the studio. Oddly enough, the rain that started today is due to last for more than a week. Most often the rainy season here in Northern California is over by now.
I just received my third package in the mail for the work and research I have been doing with mason bees. The spring of 2018 was my first year keeping honey bees. This year I have expanded my obsession for these furry little creatures from Apis to Osmia.
Next to my apiary is my studio where I currently am designing a nesting place within a sculpture for these fuzzy little local pollinators, the mason bee. Unlike my other work, this particular piece has a deadline attached to it. The completed Pollinator Pole will be installed at the end of the month at Trailside Park in MIddletown, CA as part of the 2019 EcoArts installation through the Middletown Art Center.
Though last spring was my first year keeping honey bees, I had spent a lot of time prior going to the local bee clubs, taking beekeeping classes at the junior college, and reading a ton of books. It is definitely a labor of love, and I am still not entirely sure why I am doing it. I can say it has been a life changing interest. Through investigating my new interest, I kept findng myself attracted to these mason bees. Maybe it was the correlation that I myself am kind of a mason as the process with my art work involves mortar cement and plaster. Maybe it is because my maiden name is Matar. Maybe because I think bees are really cute and fuzzy. I don’t really know. Once I started looking at the nesting materials of the mason bee, I became more attracted to these little holes that the bee would pack with mud. I am sure there are a million more reasons. I am sticking with “I don’t know” and am just following the process. It is here where I find my bliss. One thing that has stuck with me the most through this adventure is what Serge Labesque said in the first beekeeping class I took from him in the summer of 2017, that beekeeping is only that you are maintaining the place in which the bees live. The second thing I most remember Serge saying was that once you start keeping bees, you will never look at things the same again.
It has been nice to check in and refresh my neglected blog. Now I have to get my butt outside in the rain, into the studio, and keep working on my Pollinator Pole:)