Saturday, March 28, 2009

Thank a Pollinator

bee death colony collaps painting
After almost 3 months of work... here it is! Like the other 3 completed pieces in this series, Thank a Pollinator is 24x30 on Masonite. each of the small paintings is 3x4 collage/paint/printing and the center circle is 13 inches across. All are on board so there is a bit of a 3d effect going on.
The piece speaks to my concern about the world wide dieing of the bees. Colony Collapse Disorder is frightening. It has spread rapidly and has caused huge losses in the population of pollinators, the best known being honey bees.
Just about everything you put in your mouth is thanks to a pollinator. Fruit, veggies, dairy products, including the steak, nuts, etc etc the list goes on. The bee either pollinated the flower that made the fruit or the seed that grew the veggie. Bee's pollinated the alfalfa flower that became the seed that grew the forage the cow/goat/pig ate. Need I go on??
There is hope. They think that perhaps they are beginning to understand the cause, or should I say causes of C.C.D.
It would seem that the mono cultural practice of our agriculture is causing malnourishment of the bees. Pesticides farther the weakening of the bees health, then viruses, particularly Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus finish them off.
YOU CAN HELP. Grow a diverse variety of flowering plants. A perfect lawn, trimmed with a row of non-flowering ornamental plants, looks like a desert to a bee, no nourishment there. Especially focus on native flowering plants, and flowers that set seed (just dead head so they keep blooming ), go easy on the pesticides or better yet don't use any. And if you are blessed with a bee's nest, don't destroy it. If it must go, call a beekeeper and ask to have them removed.
This work, and the others will be at our show starting April 1st, Catherine and I hope to see you Tues. April 7 at 7:00 p.m. at Cherryhill library for our opening reception. Bee happy

1 comment:

  1. You're so wonderful for creating art dedicated to pollinator awareness! For over a year I've been trying to get the word out, too, and have created some art in honor of it myself. I LOVE your ideas here, very created and well done!

    ReplyDelete

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