There seems to be another stream of collective consciousness happening and it is setting the cosmos vaguely abuzz.
First, I see in House Beautiful's "Everywhere We Look" column that Honeycomb is the pattern du jour, showing up on lamps, fabric, soap, even painted on a chest of drawers.
As the author commented, "decorators are swarming to this sweet motif." (The April issue is not online yet, but I'm sure it will be shortly.)
In an interesting sidenote, the author also noted that the bee is one of the classic motifs of interior design, thanks largely to Napoleon. (What?! I'll leave it to you to research that one further, if you are curious...)
Then today I discover that several artists have taken the concept of "collaboration with Mother Nature" that I mentioned in yesterday's entry to a new level. They are not using a honeycomb motif, they are not drawing or painting bees....no, they are not using beeswax or even honey.... They are actually collaborating with bees to make their art. Check it out....
The American artist, hilary berseth begins with a frame made of wire and wax....
Then invites the bees to make themselves at home....
The finished sculpture looks like this:
Programmed Hive #8, 2008
Honeybee comb on board mounted on hive super, wood, urethane foam, wire, metal, paint, UV lacquer
24 x 24 x 48 inches (61 x 61 x 121.9 cm). View at Eleven Rivington.
Amazing and beautiful, no?
I find there is some history here -- including Garnett Puett, who twenty years ago apparently put a queen bee in a
life sized cast of his wife and let the bees sculpt a work known
as Apiscaryatid. Unfortunately, I can't find an image online at the moment.
"Aganetha Dyck
installs found objects, drawings, paintings, and sculptures into living
beehives where they are altered and eventually completed by her winged
collaborators. Aganetha’s work shows us that sometimes it is the
smallest things that are the most important:
'I
am interested in the small – in the really tiny of the world. We’re
going so fast, because we have so many people to feed and house and so
we just bulldoze ahead. It’s the simple things that already exist that
work so hard for us, that that I think we’re kind of ignoring…' ”
-- 291 Film Company for Bravo Television
Here is an example of her work, "The Queen" which she created in 2007 and describes as "Beework on Figurine, 15 x 10 x 8 1/2 in" -- incredible....
Another forerunner is Tomás Gabzdil Libertiny who "simply placed a vase-shaped mould in a beehive and then let nature take
its course. Using the mould as scaffolding, the bees crafted an
original design object in a process Libertiny then called 'slow
prototyping'."
- from Studio Libertiny
Here is one of his gorgeous vases:
I find that I intuitively strive to use organic imagery in my art... it seems that my "inner artist" only tolerates shapes or patterns that could appear in nature. Seriously, something inside me absolutely rebels if I attempt to do otherwise....it's a rather interesting phenomenon.
This art epitomizes that impulse.
Now, as much as I love organic shapes and imagery... I don't see a need for a cactus sofa, do you?? ;)
Well, it seems that cactii are just as hot or hotter in the design world as honeycombs!
More information can be found on...and photo courtesy of Design Boom.
Bee photo courtesy of Animal Planet.
." I've ordered the book and can't wait to read it. 
