HIVE Exhibition

Telling Bees by Denise Stringer Davis

Above Paintings are top: Entomphily and Zoophily: Birds and Bees, etc by Deanna Wood

Next down: Vacant by Jennie Kimbrough

Next down: Decline by Hayes Parker

      

Sara Cooney's work

Work by Suzanne Shield Polk

Close up of Collections, collaborative book by Denise Stringer Davis

Above and below are images from the HIVE exhibition at the Cole Art Center in Nacogdoches this month. We had good attendance at the reception and panel discussion on Saturday. This project was conceived to promote a greater awareness of the importance of the honeybee to our society and create discussion about  causes for the current problem with the bee population called Colony Collapse Disorder, referred to as CCD.  

A major part of the exhibition is the wall of hexagon-shaped  Encaustic paintings by Houston and DallasWAX  member artists. Content of the work needed to pertain to bees in some way.  We have Laura Tyler's film Sister Bee, streaming in the gallery. A collaborative accordion-fold book conceived and assembled by Denise Stringer Davis with pages made by friends, family and artist members is also on display. Many of the members have bee keeping in their family history. I found a old hardback copy of C.C. Miller's Fifty Years Among the Bees in my dad's things after he passed. He had stopped keeping bees a long while back and given all his equipment to another family member but for some reason kept the book.  It is on display  as well.   Below is Denise's Honey Dreams which sits on a pedestal in the gallery. Honey is in the mouth.  

The panel discussion was a lively conversation with good audience participation. Marie Kucyen, president of the Pineywood Beekeepers Association presented interesting facts about our dependence on bees for much of our food supply. She cautioned that  even with the recent news about identifying the cause of CCD, there are still questions that have not been answered surrounding this disorder. There is still suspicions that  certain pesticides lower the immune systems of the bees so that they are unable to fight off the affects of the two suspected causes. 

Panel member Melanie Brakie gave suggestions for garden plants that bees and other pollinators love as well as good suggestions on better products to get rid of garden pests that don't harm bees nor the environment. Dr. David Kulhavy was very enthusiastic about the coming together of art and science. He spoke of his book A Forest Insect Alphabet which has just been printed and will be on exhibition this week. Animated, he read/sang some of the songs that he wrote in the book about the wiggle dance of the bees. There is more about his book at the bottom of this post.

Honey Dreams by Denise Stringer Davis

Honey Dreams by Denise Stringer Davis

HIVE exhibition L to R at far end L work by Sara Cooney, Deanna Wood and Denise Stringer Davis

L to R: Collections, Denise Stringer Davis, and other works in HIVE

Pollen Puffers by Larry Kitchens

Old book from Gwen Plunkett's collection handed down from her Dad. Book is an original copy of C.C. Miller's Fifty Years Among the Bees.

L to R Collections, Far left: Denise Stringer Davis; Untitled by Hayes Parker; Vacant by Jennie Kimbrough; God's Nectar I and II and Queen's Lair (A Room of Her Own) by Gwendolyn Plunett

Swarm I and II and Star's Tears by Gwendolyn Plunkett; Harmony  and Heartbroken by Carolyn Fox-Hearn and further down works by Linda Walker

Diaspora, Empty Nest Syndrome and Cast Aside by Linda Walker

L and R -  Harmony; Center-Heartbroken by Carolyn Fox Hearn

Panel: L to R- Gwendolyn Plunkett,  Marie Kocyan,  Dr. David Kulhavy,  and Melinda Brakie.

In the picture above, Dr. Kulhavy is holding up a copy of his latest project,  A Forest Insect Alphabet, a book consisting fifty-one original woodcuts and text printed by LaNana Creek Press. This book is a result of an SFA faculty research grant awarded to Charles Jones, retired professor of art and director of SFA's fine arts press, and Dr. Kulhavy. It was printed and bound by hand during the summer and fall of 2010. The 72-page book includes woodcut prints of forest insects created by Charles Jones and descriptions and texts are written by Dr. Kulhavy.  Included in each book is a compact disc of songs that are the actual texts set to music by Nacogdoches musician Miki Lynn. Click here to read more. 


The book and 26 selected framed pages will be exhibited Wednesday, Nov. 17 in Griffith Gallery on the SFA campus. 

Q is for Woodcut by Charles Jones

You can see more four more pages of images of the HIVE exhibition on my Flickr page here. 

Traveling Again

TexasWAX/Houston's next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 7th at three o'clock in the afternoon at Julia Koivumaa's house/studio.

I hope to have more information to share regarding up-coming fall workshop/retreats and exhibitions.

On August 22nd, Deanna Wood and I are heading over to Austin for an overnight visit with Sharon Kyle Kuhn for a planning session regarding these topics, so we should have more definitive information by our September meeting.

Besides that, Deanna and I have the pleasure to be in Austin when their group meets that Saturday so we are looking forward to meeting with the Austin people and finding out all the interesting things they are doing there.

Artist's Residencies - "Creative Journey"

The latest post on Artist Emerging blog gives some great information regarding artist's residencies. Along with other good information you will find links to several different types of
residencies like The Vermont Studio Center, The Edward F. Albee Foundation, and The Atlantic Center for the Arts.
Scroll down the page to the previous post and you will find a picture of the Ora Lerman Charitable Trust Artist's Residency at Soaring Gardens, the Residency that Deanna Wood is attending this summer.

What is interesting and rather exciting besides the fact that she is getting away this summer to spend concentrated time on her art, is the opportunity Deanna offers to you and I.

Here is how she puts it:"The residency includes room and board, but I'm expected to pay for travel expenses, which can get expensive. So I'm asking for your help. If you'd like to help out, click here for an invitation to be a partner on my creative journey".

For a small investment you will get regular updates during the residency, receive a handmade artist's book created in response to her experience at the residency, plus you will be invited to a special preview of works she made that are directly related to the residency.

I am excited to say that I am one of her investors and am really looking forward to owning one of Deanna's books. I have seen some of her handmade books on her blog and website and can't wait to see what new ideas she will have for this series.

Take a look. You may want to invest in her creativity too.

Deanna mentions that this idea came from one of the chapter's of Alyson Standfield's I'd Rather Be In the Studio.

Meetings and Greetings

TexasWAX/Houston meeting was Sunday at Gwen's house. Three new artists attended the meeting. Looks like we are growing. Julia Koivumaa, one of our new members, had just come back from the IEA retreat in Carmel with lots of stuff to share with us.
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Tuesday, Deanna Wood from the Dallas group drove over from Denton for a visit. Deanna and I met up with Sharon Kyle Kuhn who had driven over from Austin. That evening we got together at Cynthia Robertson's house with some of the Houston members for a delicious meal that Cynthia cooked.
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The 2nd Annual Encaustic Conference is coming up the first weekend of June. Robert McGehee and I from the Houston group are attending this year. Deanna will be there from the Dallas group. Due to the conference, our next TWH meeting will be in July on the 13th.

TexasWAX/Houston TexasWAX/Dallas: Collaborating Artists Media Project, Inc.

Postcard Design by Deanna Wood
See Deanna Wood's comments at her blogspot regarding the two new groups of artist forming in Texas.
Deanna and I have been communicating for several months now and things are underway and getting exciting with our first collaboration....an exhibition in Dallas that coincides with the
College Art Association Conference being held Feb. 20-24.

I had to miss our February meeting here in Houston because I was in California with my daughter while she had her first child. Baby, Charley Logan, was late as most first babies are so I was delayed in my return back to Houston. Robert McGehee held the February meeting at his house and studio and I was sorry to miss but new babies come first. March meeting will be held at Cynthia Robertson's house. Our agenda at the March meeting includes discussion regarding our next collaborative venture here in Houston.

Hope to see you in Dallas next week.