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Here’s a pumpkin drawing I made in Pencil I at the Denver Botanic Gardens. (They’ve got an amazingly good botanical illustration program.) It’s satisfying to draw realistically from life. There’s something about it that feels magical. But this drawing doesn’t qualify as art to me. I need transformation. When a recognizable form shifts & becomes something new… that’s art.

Do you remember the heart shaped swarm I posted about earlier this summer? Its keeper, Mary Holt, was kind enough to send an update and it looks like the bees are safely ensconced in their new home in the English Cotswolds. Thought you’d enjoy these photos.

This first image of three freshly painted beehives is my favorite. I love the way the organic stuff on the right points to the hives on the left… and the way the building’s structure draws your eye toward the flowering bush in back. Lovingly managed chaos… the secret to every garden’s beauty.

(Click to enlarge.)

Mary says….
These are English W.B.C.’s, (invented at the turn of the last century by the Rev.William Broughton Carr) which form a double-skinned hive. The ‘National’ hive which you correctly located on Thorne’s website, will fit inside the WBC outer ‘lifts’. Unlike your crisp, dry-cold climate in the Colorado mountains, I live on a cold but damp exposed hillside, 750ft above sea-level, and felt the extra insulation of a double-skinned hive might help the bees come through winter safely. 

On a rare warm day, Mr. Crabtree came and we transferred the bees with their brood frames from his National hive to my own. The operation went very smoothly and the bees remained extremely calm throughout.

Mr. Crabtree unveiled

Towards the bee garden at Oatleyhill.

This last one’s a favorite too.

Curious to learn more about how to respond and talk about art? Good news! John Borstel, co-author of Critical Response Process has a new blog & it’s off to a roaring start.

My blogging hero, Andrew Sullivan (who blogs faster than the speed of reading), has a great article about why he blogs in this month’s Atlantic.

My favorite quote:

The key to understanding a blog is to realize that it’s a broadcast,
not a publication. If it stops moving, it dies. If it stops paddling,
it sinks.

This is great advice. I’ll never blog at the pace Andrew does but love the inspiration to write more, rougher, faster, stronger.

MacArthur award winning choreographer Liz Lerman of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange was in residency at the ATLAS building in Boulder last week. She and colleagues did two presentations. The first was a panel discussion about the making of Ferocious Beauty: Genome – a large scale multimedia performance integrating scientific concepts with sound, dance and video. The second was a mini-workshop in Critical Response Process – a prescribed method for eliciting constructive feedback about any creative endeavor (from choreography to cake!) I attended both.

As an artist, I think it’s important to develop the ability to judge one’s own work – at least somewhat. Unfortunately the self-assessment process is a sloooowwww one. I’m not always able to “see” my work right after I make it. It can take days, weeks, sometimes even months before strengths and weaknesses are clear to me. Outside feedback is a gift when I can get it. Alas, finding it is a hit or miss experience.

Liz Lerman has spent a lot of time thinking about how to talk about works in progress, judge them and give good feedback. She acknowledges it’s uncomfortable to both give & receive critical feedback and came up with the Critical Response Process to make things easier. (Aren’t you glad someone’s working on this!?!)

Here are a few impressions from the workshop:

• Feedback exists on a spectrum from nurturing to rigorous. We need to honor both ends of the spectrum to have balance.

• It can be hard for artists to hear feedback unless it’s unqualified praise.

• What makes something good?
1. The artist or performers are 100% committed to the project or performance
2. All performers know why they’re doing the performance
3. Something is revealed.

• When defensiveness starts, learning stops.

• It’s helpful to ask neutral questions where opinion isn’t embedded in the question. (This takes practice.)

• No detail is too small to notice.

• Personal reflections are OK.

• It’s important for the artist to have some control over the feedback session.

• Liz Lerman on competition – “When I see great art I’m ecstatic! To want that for a colleague is fantastic.”

I could go on, but a better way to find out more is to get your hands on a copy of Critical Response Process and try it with your friends.

In the meantime I’m curious to hear your thoughts about creative feedback. What’s worked for you & what hasn’t? How do you self-assess?

Here’s a video of the artist Jason Hackenworth who makes giant balloon sculpture of flowers and insects. Beautiful!

SISTER BEE at the Koehnline Museum of Art
Feminist Ecology Exhibition
Oakton Community College
Des Plaines, Illinois
Opening reception Tuesday, October 28 from 5-8 PM
Free and open to the public.

SISTER BEE at the Chemical Free Beekeeping Conference
Southeast Community College
Lincoln, Nebraska
Conference runs from Friday, November 21st through Sunday the 23rd
Open to conference registrants
More info at Bush Farms.

SISTER BEE at the Denver Botanic Gardens
Sustainability Film Series
Denver, Colorado
Thursday, February 19th at 7:00 PM
Tickets are $8 for members and $10 for the general public. Panel to follow.

I’ll be at the Denver and Lincoln events. Hope to see you there!

Ooh! There’s a new film out that I can hardly wait to see. It’s called Who Does She Think She Is? and it’s about work/life balance told through the stories of five women artists. I just spent the last half hour browsing the film’s site & blog and came away feeling inspired but also struck as the filmmakers’ experience – early rejections from big festivals followed by exhilarating success with independent screenings – reminds me of my own with Sister Bee. I think there’s pent up demand for this type of filmmaking – films by and about women made for broad audiences – that just isn’t being met.

Thanks to Alyson Stanfield and her wonderful ArtBizBlog for the heads up.

Gotta love this.

A favorite word overheard in my studio last weekend…

Playful – fond of games and amusement; lighthearted; intended for one’s own or others’ amusement rather than seriously; giving or expressing pleasure or amusement.

I take painting seriously. But there’s a playful part to it too – especially around titles. This type of feedback – the soft words that swirl around new work – is priceless. It’s one of the things I love about Open Studios.

Elephant 5″ x 4″ encaustic an ink on panel