Laura's Art Blog, Exploring the Material World

Foraging, Boulder, Colorado

Those of you who check in from time to time may have noticed I don’t often write about the threat to honeybees known as colony collapse “disorder.” There are a couple of reasons. One: this is an art blog so I try steer clear of technical beekeeping stuff. Two (and this is the main thing): it’s a complex topic fraught with confusion, even for beekeepers and most of the big news stories that have emerged in last year have seemed just off target enough for me not to want to pass them on to you. Like when the NYTimes published Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery I didn’t post about it even though it seemed it could be definitive. In a nutshell, it tells the story of how scientist Jerry Bromenschenk documented a correlation between a fungus, a virus and collapsing bee colonies. As you can imagine, people were excited and relieved to learn that the mystery of the dying bees had finally been solved! The story burned up the blogosphere. Unfortunately for Bromenshenk (the victim of a rashly written headline if there ever was one) it fractured under scrutiny. Money magazine rebutted with What a Scientist Didn’t Tell the New York Times about His Study on Bee Deaths which cast a shadow on Bromenshenk’s work by revealing his close ties to Bayer CropScience, the manufacturer of a pesticide highly toxic to honeybees.

Interestingly, while the poorly reported Bromenschenk story and other tidbits probing the bee mysteries have hit big, a parallel story, a more human story, and in my view, a more truthful story with darker implications is struggling to rise up. In December I pointed you toward a press release about a newly uncovered EPA memo that disclosed the deeply flawed research behind the approval of clothianidin. (Clothianidin, a.k.a. Poncho, is one of several new pesticides that a growing number of beekepers suspect are linked to colony collapse.) In a surprising move, a group of commercial beekeepers followed up on the disclosure by asking the EPA to take clothianidin off the market pending new research. This represents a big shift in strategy by the community of commercial beekeepers who, for the most part, have taken a cautious approach to colony collapse – first looking inward at beekeeping practices (National Honeybee Advisory Board member David Hackenberg has wondered out loud, “Am I a bad beekeeper?”) – and then beseeching the scientific community for leadership and answers. This is the first time a national beekeeping organization has stepped up to say what many of us have speculated privately; that the new pesticides are suspect; that they were rushed onto the market without proper testing; and that the science that led to their approval is flawed.

This is a story worth following. Tom Philpott at Grist has done some excellent reporting. Other fine reporting available at Wired, Fast Company and Restoration Nation.

Disclosure: Tom Theobald, the Niwot, Colorado beekeeper at the center EPA memo story is a personal friend and the subject of my new documentary.

My friend Rebekah West made this beautiful thing. (She’s on an artist’s retreat in Cabris, France.) It’s a kaleidoscopic vision of a harpist’s hands “playing the song you’re hearing.”

Tenderness.

Megan Metheney-Lauzet by Rebekah West

It is a joy to pick new flowers.

- Lucretius

Wishing you and yours a beautiful 2011. May all our gardens grow.

A detailed imaginary world involving humans and/or animals, or perhaps even fantasy or alien creations. Often having its own geography, history, and language, it is an experience that is developed during childhood and continues over a long period of time: months or even years.

As a filmmaker I’ve watched with dismay as high-speed internet access, alongside a hard push by Silicon Valley intellectuals to make everything “free,” has gutted the music and newspaper industries. As broadband streaming becomes the preferred way to watch long-format TV shows and feature films it’s only a matter of time, I worry, before filmmakers’ livelihoods follow those of freelance writers and musicians down the proverbial drain.

Thank goodness for Jaron Lanier’s humanist manifesto, You Are Not a Gadget. Lanier, a modern-day Renaissance Man (musician, technology guru and philosopher) reminds us that we make technology to serve our human needs and shouldn’t feel obligated to “flatten” our lives to serve the needs of technology. A former proponent of open-source creativity Lanier now advocates for a new digital commerce that will hopefully enable artists to receive payment for their digital creations. This influentual book is a must-read for any artist working in music or film and highly recommended for anyone using social media (blog, FaceBook, Twitter, etc.) to promote their analog works.

Jaron Lanier on painting…

A physical oil painting cannot convey an image created in another medium; it is impossible to make an oil painting look just like an ink drawing, for instance, of vice versa. But a digital image of sufficient resolution can capture any kind of perceivable image – or at least that’s how you’ll think of it if you believe in bits too much.

Of course, it isn’t really so. A digital image of an oil painting is forever a representation, not a real thing. An oil painting changes with time; cracks appear on it’s face. It has a texture, odor and a sense of presence and history …

In a world where everything digital is seen as “free,” physical paintings matter more than ever to artists and people seeking a respite from their online selves, I think. The physics of paint, the way it carries pigment and reflects light, its texture, its realness, is a worthy subject of painting. Encaustic is especially great at showing these things.

Breaking news in the bee world…

The National Honeybee Advisory Board has asked the EPA to remove the popular pesticide clothianidin (also known as Poncho) from the market based on a leaked agency memo that discloses flawed research. You can read the full press release here.

What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?

- John Greenleaf Whittier

I’m finally feeling caught up (well, nearly so) after the madness that’s honey season x Open Studios.

Thanks to my friend Laurel Kallenbach for kindly pointing out that comments were down for awhile. They are up and running again. As always, your thoughts are warmly welcome.

Thanks also to Alyson Stanfield, the ArtBizCoach, for tipping me off to this WordPress Editorial Calendar plugin, a neat little tool that’s going to make this blog more… regular.

Have you seen Line by Line? Its a new series of illustrated essays on drawing hosted by the NYTimes. I think it’s wonderful. Today’s piece, Mother Nature Decoded, is especially great.

Leaf and tree sketches by James McMullan

Candy Apple, encaustic and ink on panel, 5″ x 4″

This candy-esque chunk was inspired by a gone-by garlic blossom. After a year or so of swearing off Alizarin crimson I am unreservedly back on it again.

My downtown Boulder painting studio will be open to the public from noon to 6 on Saturday and Sunday October 2rd, 3rd, 9th and 10th. You’re warmly invited to stop by and say hello.

Open Studios 2010
October 32rd, 3rd, 9th and 10th
Noon to 6:00 pm
In the alley between Pine and Mapleton at 15th in Boulder, Colorado

If I were a student right now, I think I’d have to pick data visualization as my major. Data visualization is the craft of presenting complex data in a comprehensible, visual format. Aaron Koblin’s work is both playful and stunning. (Check out The Johnny Cash Project for a hypnotic taste of a crowd-sourced animation.) Ben Fry’s static illustrations are also worth a peek as is Tableau Software, a data visualization tool for businesses.

If you’ve got any good data viz links up your sleeve, send them my way! I cannot get enough of this stuff.

Strawberries picked by someone I love.

It’s that poignant time of year.

Courage, also known as bravery, fortitude, will. “Physical courage” is courage in the face of physical pain, hardship, death, or threat of death, while “moral courage” is the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, or discouragement.

Lion Passant, fresco mounted on canvas, The Metropolitan Museum Cloisters, New York

New paintings. These are in the same vein of the work I did last summer, though more raw and saturated. These three remind me of animals.

Tusk, encaustic and ink on panel, 5″ x 4″

Using a new pigment here, Burnt Scarlet from R&F.

Serpent, encaustic and ink on panel, 5″ x 4″

This one, Chalice, could be a cup or a snout/trunk.

Chalice, encaustic, gold leaf and ink on panel, 5″ x 4″

I love white encaustic.

What happens when you put a scanning electron microscope in the hands of an artist?

This new book…

Bee by Rose-Lynn Fisher

Bee by Rose-Lynn Fisher presents sixty photos of magnified honeybee anatomy.

Antenna joint, 400x, Rose-Lynn Fisher

For beekeepers thirsting for a better understanding of honeybee anatomy this book is indispensable. For artists, it’s inspirational.

Antenna pollen, 1100x, Rose-Lynn Fisher

Available at Princeton Architectural Press.