Bee Art

Canadian artist Sarah Hatton collects dead bees.

“Why on earth would she do that?” you ask.

Like many an artist, she is out to make a point, and it’s a significant one.

Arranging dead bees into elaborate mandalas on fields of white,

gift_for_gab-hatton_circle-2

Hatton is making a stark visual statement about the connection between declining bee populations and the use of pesticides.

gift_for_gab-hatton_portrait

“The link between neonicotinoid pesticides and the worldwide decline of bee populations is a crisis that cannot be ignored,” Hatton explains on her website. “I have arranged thousands of dead honeybees in mathematical patterns symbolically linked to monoculture crops, such as the Fibonacci spiral found in the seed head of the sunflower. The viewer experiences the vertigo of this lifeless swarm, a dizzying optical illusion that echoes the bees’ loss of ability to navigate due to the toxins locked within the very source of their sustenance.”

Powerful stuff.

A picture, after all, speaks a thousand words.

gift_for_gab-hatton_florid_detail

gift_for_gab-hatton_circle-1

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    The complexity of honey bees is one of nature’s most interesting secrets. All of their relationships to plant life and humans is both beautiful and haunting. With declines of bee populations at startling rates, we are finally getting what we need to be doing to help them in focus. I hope it won’t be too late!

  2. Karlyne says:

    Powerful! Granddaughters were amazed at these pictures!

  3. Debra says:

    The more I hear about this issue, the happier I am that I became a backyard beekeeper to help nurture these critters. They are utterly fascinating. Thanks for sharing this art with us.

  4. Carol says:

    I, too, am a backyard beekeeper and loving it. I encourage every to learn more about this important issue and help our planet’s bees.

  5. Glenda Kelly says:

    We all need to speak up about pesticides killing our bee population, and also the bad effects the pesticides have on our own lives.

  6. Teri Blackmon says:

    So beautiful. I have never seen this before.

  7. Vicki says:

    Makes me sad. I love the honey bees. People need to know about their plight though.
    I care about them and a Sustainable earth. Beautiful art though.

  8. Nancy Cushion says:

    I and my husband have been beekeeping for several years. The Honeybee is an amazing! The members of the colony are working together, no complaining, towards only one goal to maintain the colony. We have much to learn from bees. We need to help sustain our Bees. Beautiful art but sad it comes from our planets loss.

  9. Terri Smith says:

    So disturbingly beautiful. I love and admire bees. When I spend time with my flowers in the spring, bees keep me company! I love it that they come to my yard and gather without fear. Thank you for bringing this reality to light.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Crafty Sunday

Happy Monday morning! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We spent the weekend whipping up a few handmades.

 

Photo Nov 24, 11 27 59 AM

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    Hi Meg!! I love your crafting table complete with resident artist!! It is that time to be working on our handcrafted gifts for December.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Artful Daughter

What might happen if you were to hand a piece of fine art to a 4-year-old …

who is armed with markers?

Magic, that’s what.

Illustrator Mica Angela Hendricks confirmed this in a positively picturesque blog post earlier this year.

Eager to try out a special new sketchbook she’d ordered for herself, Mica attempted to sit down for a bit of “mommy time” drawing when her 4-year-old daughter snapped to attention.

“OOOH! Is that a NEW sketchbook? Can I draw in that too, mama?”

Reluctant to relinquish her project …

(“I’m all about kids’ crafts, but when it comes to my own art projects, I don’t like to share.”)

She told her daughter that she had been planning to add a body to the woman’s face she’d just drawn.

“Well, I will do it,” her daughter declared resolutely, and she grabbed the pen.

One page, Mica resigned … I can sacrifice one page.

She didn’t anticipate the absolute wonder of what came next.

“I had drawn a woman’s face, and she had turned her into a dinosaur-woman. It was beautiful, it was carefree, and I LOVED what she had created,” Mica admitted. “Flipping through my sketchbook, I found another doodle of a face I had not yet finished. She drew a body on it, too, and I was enthralled. It was such a beautiful combination of my style and hers. And she loved being a part of it. She never hesitated in her intent. She wasn’t tentative. She was insistent and confident that she would, of course, improve any illustration I might have done. And the thing is, she DID.”

img_5151

Image courtesy of Mica Angela Hendricks via Busymockingbird.com

Take a look at some of the magnificent illustrations that resulted from this mother-daughter collaboration and read more about what Mica learned from letting go of her artistic reins in her original post.

 

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    This is fascinating and the results are incredible! Totally unique art for sure! It reminds me of how our children view life and how different their view of what is going on can be. It is so easy to be humming along in our fixed universe and forget that some other little person living in the same house has an alternate view of the now.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Gery Girls

Ready to rock the radish?

radishes

Photo by thebittenword.com via Wikimedia Commons

Well, okay, maybe I’m not quite hip enough to make that question work,

but the Gery Girls sure are.

This dynamic and darling duo of sisters Lillian (10) and Lyla (7) is “rocking” fruits and veggies from the orchard to the garden in their own snappy CDs.

rockin-the-garden

rockin-the-orchard

Under the guitar-picking guidance of their dad, Nashville musician Douglas Gery, the Girls are out to get other kids groovin’ to good food by making get-up-and-dance music.

So, don’t be shy … “Root for the Radish!”

Or, grab a potato sack and get ready to hop your heart out …

Whew! These gals will get your blood pumping.

The Gery Girls also have a Christmas CD that will tickle kids’ funny bones with tunes like “Santa’s Getting Buff.”

Listen to more songs and order CDs (all 4 for $15) at www.gerygirls.com.

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    What a hoot! These girls are just adorable and their message is so important. Childhood obesity is a huge national problem and we need more creative ways for kids to learn about veggies and be inspired to give them a try. A CD for an elementary school teacher would be an awesome gift to a classroom for a unit of study sometime.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Karina’s First Knitting Project

Karina, who took today’s photo-of-the-day, spent last weekend knitting her first-ever project—hat, gloves, scarf. In one weekend! (Like, that’s just soooooo farmgirl.) She couldn’t put the needles down once Knit Ann Purl found her way into Karina’s heart.

And she into ours. Stay tuned for more of her photos.

And a book. She and I are working on a book together. The book, the book, the book, nothin’ but the book. (Our deadline looms. Looms. Looms.)

knitting-project

 

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    Easy projects with pretty chunky yarn are just the best! They make up fast and you can enjoy the fruits of your labors in just a few short hours. That is my kinda knitting! Plus, right now, there are so many beautiful colors and combinations that you can get a simple pattern and create gifts for friends and family. I love the new self fair isle patterns of yarn where you get these adorable patterns without having to keep changing colors.

  2. Terry Steinmetz says:

    Karina, love your project. 🙂

  3. Debbie Fischer says:

    Congratulations Karina on your first every knitting project, your set is beautiful. Once you start knitting it becomes an addiction believe me. I find it relaxes me and help relieves my stress, oh the things you will make!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

BS Farms

Used work truck that hubby (Mr. Butters) purchased recently. Do ya think we should replace the sign? Or … if the truck fits, just use it. Fit happens, right? 

BS_Farms-9523

 

  1. CJ Armstrong says:

    Welllll . . . I’d say, it if fits “wear it”. Makes me smile!
    Tell “Mr. Butters” I said “HI”, too please
    HUGS TO YOU BOTH!
    CJ

  2. Karlyne says:

    Chuckle! We used to know a plumber whose last name was, I kid you not, “Butts”. His work truck was hilarious.

  3. Terry Steinmetz says:

    I love it the way it is. My b-i-l’s initials are BS & we love him!

  4. Daniele says:

    If it runs good who cares 🙂

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Where’s Waldo?

wheres_waldo-4313
Continue reading

  1. Elizabeth says:

    What a great place to play hide~N~seek. Love those tree trunks; they look as if they are braided. Brian appears to be having fun too!

  2. Winnie Nielsen says:

    Hahaha, Brian. That hat is a dead give away!! I bet Halloween on the farm was a lot of deliciously spooky fun!

  3. CJ Armstrong says:

    Very clever Brian! Love it! Have a great weekend!

  4. Karlyne says:

    I appreciate fun, and this looks like it was a lot of fun!

  5. connie says:

    I love it!! Brian you look FABULOUS! You so rock Waldo! better than Waldo!

  6. Sylvia Jacobus says:

    He’s just outside having a lot of fun!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *