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StumbleUponPosts Tagged: Marilyn Judson
This Queen Bee Is White
It's a three-dimensional paper sculpture of a queen bee.
Noted artist Marilyn Judson (right) of Davis created the paper sculpture (below) now on display in the "Sticky Business: Art of the Honey Bee" show that runs through Dec. 23 at the Pence Gallery, 212 D St., Davis. Gallery hours are Tuesdays through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Judson has been around "bugs" all her life. Her husband, Charles Judson, is an emeritus professor of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
Judson specializes in paper sculpture, calligraphy and watercolors. She has displayed her work throughout the area and worked in partnership with Davis artist Donna Billick in creating area murals.
She is one of 11 artists showing their work, which includes paintings, monoprints, sculpture and photographs.
The gist of the show is to incorporate "themes of environmental conservation with beautiful and thought-provoking fine art on the subject of the honey bee,” says curator Christopher Beer.
“The honey bee has provided sweetness to life that has benefited culture since the dawn of civilization. Now, scientists and farmers are eager to identify causes of the current decline of the honey bee population due to colony collapse disorder.”
Beer worked with regional artists and researchers from UC Davis “to investigate this unique insect’s relationship to the Valley and our way of life.”
And to point out the plight of the honey bee.
Queen Bee
Sticky Business: Art of the Honey Bee
Bees are in a sticky situation.
Now enter "Sticky Business: Art of the Honey Bee."
It's an art show about honey bees that will run from Tuesday, Nov. 23 from Thursday, Dec. 23 in the Pence Art Gallery, 212 D St., Davis.
Curator Christopher Beer worked with regional artists and researchers from UC Davis, including noted bee specialist Eric Mussen (right), “to investigate this unique insect’s relationship to the Valley and our way of life.”
“This is a group exhibition incorporating themes of environmental conservation with beautiful and thought-provoking fine art on the subject of the honey bee,” Beer said. "The honey bee has provided sweetness to life that has benefited culture since the dawn of civilization. Now, scientists and farmers are eager to identify causes of the current decline of the honey bee population due to colony collapse disorder.”
The art includes paintings, monoprints, sculptures and photographs “that will set the stage as visitors learn about of the current plight of the honey bee,” Beer said.
Also planned: a multimedia station combined with informational panels.
Artists will greet guests at a reception set for 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10 in the Pence Art Gallery.
The 11 artists displaying their work are Donna Billick, Marilyn Judson, Melissa Wood, Adele Shaw, Roma Devanbu and Jeanette Copley, all of Davis; T. S. Linzey of Sacramento; Paula Wenzl Bellacera of West Sacramento; Wesley Wright of San Jose; Russell Bauer of Michigan; and yours truly of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
Judson, who will show her intricate paper sculptures of bees, has close ties with the UC Davis Department of Entomology. Her husband, Charles, is an emeritus professor of entomology.
Billick, a self-described "rock artist" and a geneticist by training, is an entomologist at heart. She recently completed a six-foot-long bee sculpture for the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, UC Davis. Billick and entomologist Diane Ullman co-founded and co-direct the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, which created the art in the haven.
And what would a show be without a talk on honey bees? Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology will discuss honey bees and their plight on Saturday, Dec. 11. The event, set from 1 to 4 p.m., and billed as "Kids Create 2010," includes his talk and hands-on art projects for children and their families. "Special guests" will be...guess what...honey bees! They'll be in a bee observation hive provided by the Laidlaw facility. llustrator Jed Alexander of Davis will show the families how to paint a bee, using watercolors. The fee is $5 per person ($4 for Pence Art Gallery members).
All in all, "Sticky Business" promises to be a very sweet event.
"Sticky" is good!
Donna Billick
Marilyn Judson
In Celebration of Bee Art
Mark your calendars.
Saturday, May 8 is the "Bees at The Bee" art show.
The art show, featuring the work of bee artists from throughout much of Northern California, is a benefit for honey bee research at the University of California, Davis. The occasion? The Sacramento Bee's annual Second Saturday event.
"Bees at The Bee" takes place from 3 to 8 p.m. in newspaper's courtyard at 2100 Q St. Admission is free, as is parking in The Bee's Q lot.
Some 60 talented artists from a 12-county area submitted work that includes acrylic paintings, watercolors, pen and ink drawings, metal and paper sculptures, photographs, fused glass plates, pendants, a fleece blanket, a neckpiece, crocheted multimedia, collages, monoprint-woodcut, individually painted CDS, and a scrimshaw engraving on a mammoth ivory.
A portion of the art sales will go directly to honey bee research at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis.
“I’m really blown away by the level of quality, the ingenuity, and the variety of content we’re seeing for this show,” said Sacramento artist Laurelin Gilmore, who is coordinating the show. “It’s a relatively narrow theme, but concern for the plight of the honey bees is filtered through each artist in a different way, and the results run the gamut from funny to beautiful to profound. Every time I see a new piece for this show, I am re-energized!”
"Bees at The Bee" will feature a festival-type atmosphere with live music, refreshments and lots of fun things to do, see and sample. For example, visitors can see a bee observation hive and single out the queen bee, workers and drones. They can sample a honey product--the Honey Lovers line of Gimbal's Fine Candies, based in San Francisco. The company is donating five percent of the proceeds from the sale of Honey Lovers (fruit chews made with natural honey) for UC Davis bee research.
One of the artists displaying her work is Marilyn Judson of Davis. She's passionate about calligraphy and paper sculpture.
“I have always loved letters and studied calligraphy in London and taught calligraphy in the local school district and the Davis Art Center,” Judson said.
“Paper sculpture is something I have always want to do and I really have enjoyed the possibilities that it produces,” she said. “Manipulating the paper into a three-dimensional piece can be challenging.”
Her paper sculptures, she acknowledges, include "lots of insects and flowers." Her husband, Charles, is an emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis.
Her paper sculptures of moth brains, moth antennae and bacteria are as stunning as they are intricate.
For the art show, Judson submitted two pieces: a framed paper sculpture titled "Queen Bee" and a framed caligraphy and watercolor featuring a quote from the book, “Archy and Mehitable” by Don Marquis.
Marquis (1878-1937), an American humorist and longtime columnist for The New York Sun, claimed that a cockroach named Archy jumped on his typewriter at night and wrote bits of wit and wisdom.
Archy couldn't punch two keys at the same time so his work contained no punctuation or capitalization. In fact, he wrote his name as "archy."
The "night-writing" cockroach wrote this:
as a representative
of the insect world
i have often wondered
on what man bases his claims
to superiority
everything he knows he has had
to learn whereas we insects are born
knowing everything we need to know
To really appreciate those words, you just have to see Marilyn Judson's amazing calligraphy, illustrated with colorful insects.
One of them is, yes, a honey bee.
Marilyn Judson
Queen Bee
