This year has been busy with art projects – my sanity level got a little tested – haha – but as always, it’s a thrill when these projects start to develop and eventually finish.

ANYWAY, what I am trying to get to is that I managed to complete two public art murals recently. And I want to share my process!

The first was a request from Ottawa’s Chinatown BIA and the Ottawa School of Art, to design and paint a concrete “barrier” located at the major intersection of Chinatown (Somerset St. W. and Bronson Avenue). The design was submitted and approved last year.

However, due to inclement weather, the project was postponed to this summer.

So I started the project in June 2019. Here is a mix of in-progress photos:

After fighting with masking tape (and some minor sunburning) I finished!

The second project is one that I heard about in the arts community on Facebook. There was an artist call from a new local business, APIVERTE:

APIVERTE builds EZHouses on host properties featuring the works of local artists. Our goal is to propagate and protect the honey bees – while also pollinating the surrounding environment. We sell personalized CSA-style honey shares to individuals and regional businesses. Our honey is small batch, craft, personally branded and geo-located to its harvest area. We also conduct research and development activities on bee health and habitat throughout the calendar year.  https://apiverte.ca/

Apiverte was looking for artists to create artwork to cover their bee houses for permanent installation. The idea of having my art on a bee house is super exciting for me, so I HAD to apply! THANKFULLY I had updated my public art section of my website, so I only had to send them a link and some basic info and artistic intentions. My application was accepted 🙂

One reason I loved this project was that they delivered the panel to paint to me! So I got to paint in the comfort of my home studio, instead of working on site.

Here is a mix of in-progress photos:

As you can see from the images, the panel has two ledges. The bottom slots are the bee entrances. I wanted to incorporate this structure into my design. So I imagined the ledges as platforms built for a tree house. And instead of a traditional green leafy tree, I switched to a multi-coloured blossoming tree. Each entrance also had to be coloured a little different from each other so the bees return to their correct home base after each outing. I don’t know why, but I find this super cute.

And this is the final painting:

I decided to title this A Bee’s Tree House. It’s inspired by the notion of creating a happy dwelling for honey bees: playful houses surrounded by bright colours and flowering plants.

The hive is located at Juniper Farm in Wakefield Quebec, Canada. You can see the bees in this photo!

Thank you to the Ottawa arts community for providing these opportunities for me to paint!