Pollinators on the Move

Spring Always Comes, 30×40 inches, mixed media on canvas $2200

An initial project on the subject of pollinators for the Salmon Arm Arts Centre in 2022 has turned into a touring exhibition in collaboration of myself along with artists Sarah Hope and Leilani Ambrose. It’s now April 2025, and the latest iteration opened at the Kamloops Arts Council courthouse gallery this week. April 5th, we host an opening reception with the aim to showcase the plight of pollinators in our local and global ecosystem through the vehicle of contemporary art.

Art has long been a method of teaching that engages the viewer not just with facts and information but also through sensory experience of colour, texture, and an experience of beauty. We hear regularly that the preservation of forests, wetlands, wildflower meadows and grasslands are not only essential for our ecosystems and maintaining biodiversity, but they are also critical when it comes to pollination. Insects, birds, bats, moths and butterflies all rely on these natural habitats. Insect populations alone are decreasing at an alarming rate due to land use change, pesticides and climate change. It is easy to become numb to the inundation of such devastating news that presents itself on the daily headlines regarding our earth.

In A Place for the Pollinators, as artists we ask the viewer to look at the layers of the landscape, to notice the impact of pollinators as they travel and make their homes in both fully wild and human interface zones.  Through the mediums of paint and paper, this exhibition encourages viewers to look at how humans can create space in their minds and physical surroundings to ensure survival of pollinators. It asks viewers to consider that their own survival is linked with the preservation of all species. The exhibit brings a sense of possibility with the use of bright colour and sensitive mark making to a poignant and meaningful subject.

Orientation of Flight II, 30×30 inches, mixed media on canvas, $1950

My own work in A Place for the Pollinators is inspired by open-source scientific journals detailing experiments where the flight paths of honeybees were tracked for a variety of reasons. In some cases, the scientists were trying to understand how bees learn to orient themselves in the landscape; in others, they were looking at the impact of hive mites on the flight of the bees; a diagram might also be the tracking of a bee’s travels across its short summer lifetime.

Finding Our Path, 36×36 inches, mixed media on board, currently available at Gallery Odin.

Utilizing the initial scientific diagrams as inspiration, I begin the paintings by drawing the line of flights on the surface while adding layers of paint and line through various mediums as the painting develop.  Viewers will notice a busier spot on each painting. This is the bee hive where the bee has returned over and over. The larger loops represent longer expeditions where the bee went searching for pollen. Repeated lines back and forth to the hive are the bee’s pattern near the end of its life when it flies back and forth to a reliable source of nectar or pollen. These works are meant to symbolize the powerful impact of a small species on our planet, while alluding to the ephemeral nature of an individual bee’s life span.

Flight Paths VIII, 36×48 inches mixed media on board, currently available at Gallery Odin.

At first glance the pieces read as simply abstract colourful pieces, but viewers usually become more engaged upon discovering the inspiration and meaning behind the work. The impact of bees on the natural landscape as well as the impact of human activity on the lives of insects is an underlying theme to these works. Since the original paintings were made for a group show at the Salmon Arm Arts Centre, I have created a whole collection which has toured several galleries throughout the province, sometimes along with Sarah Hope and Leilani Ambrose whose work addresses similar themes.

Orientation of Flight I, 30×30 inches, mixed media on canvas $1950

Come check out our latest show at the Kamloops Arts Council Courthouse Gallery throughout April 2025. You are invited to the opening reception April 5th from 1-3pm to meet the artists. Please follow our work for more about the connection between art, science and the landscape.