Bee My Honey
As its name suggests, this large installation was inspired by the pattern and colors of a honeycomb. I learned that bees make honeycomb starting the top of the underlying structure and build downwards, filling the cells with honey and plugging each one with wax as they go. I liked the idea of a piece that grew downwards and felt heavy in a space. I settled on plastic cups as a way of mimicking the cells: there are over a thousand in the installation piece (and it could have been bigger). Each cup was colored by hand to give it a painterly touch.
If it were a perfect world, I would have loved to install this vertically on a wall. Since it's not, I was left with only one option: making the honeycomb "grow" up from the ground. It's supported with cardboard, since my plan to use chicken wire as a base was contingent on having wood to staple into. Regardless, try imagine this as I intended (see the mini display below)!
If it were a perfect world, I would have loved to install this vertically on a wall. Since it's not, I was left with only one option: making the honeycomb "grow" up from the ground. It's supported with cardboard, since my plan to use chicken wire as a base was contingent on having wood to staple into. Regardless, try imagine this as I intended (see the mini display below)!
A mini version (18" x 28") of the installation, as I would have liked it to look! Here the cups are supported with chicken
wire, and there are paint drips on the inside of the glass to convey the idea of an over-abundance of honey.
wire, and there are paint drips on the inside of the glass to convey the idea of an over-abundance of honey.
The finished installation. The blue line is equal to one foot; the piece is meant to fit in a 8' x 11' rectangular space.
At its deepest point (the part to the right), the structure protrudes 2.5 feet. (There's some distortion in the image,
since I wasn't able to get high enough up in the air to look directly down on top of the piece.)
At its deepest point (the part to the right), the structure protrudes 2.5 feet. (There's some distortion in the image,
since I wasn't able to get high enough up in the air to look directly down on top of the piece.)
The structure in progress.
A Pinterest inspiration/mood board for the project.
The original sketch included paint cans and cups of varying sizes, but I decided against these elements.
A detail of the hand-painted cups.
