BEE BARN
Lyons, NE
A Tiny Dot in a Sea of GMO Farms
Jeff Cassler reached out to me from his 8-acre organic farm, Good Taste Farms, in Lyons Nebraska. His farm is a tiny dot in a sea of giant GMO farms. He was having trouble getting his numbers in alignment with organic standards because of the drift of the pesticides from the bigger farms surrounding him. He suggested I paint the roof of his barn with bees so that the crop dusters could see what was down below. Little did he know that I have had a fascination with Nebraska since I was a little kid. It took me about 2 minutes to say yes.
The Process
This project, like so many others, started out with a clear intention that revealed something entirely different. I was well on my way to painting bees big enough to be seen from the sky (each bee is over 22 feet in length) when I started learning about seeds, seed production, and eventually systemic pesticides. Systemic pesticides are any pesticide that is absorbed into a plant and distributed throughout its tissues, reaching the plant's stem, leaves, roots, and any fruits or flowers. Systemic pesticides are water-soluble, so they easily move throughout a plant as it absorbs water and transports it to its tissues. Fun fact… water-soluble DOES NOT mean the pesticide suddenly disappears in the water.
Seeds and Hope
I then found out that 90% of the seeds in the world’s food systems are owned and controlled by companies. For me, as an artist and storyteller, this rang as terribly bad. There are only two symbols in the history of storytelling that are consistently used as symbols of hope and possibility. Babies and seeds. I immediately thought, “What does it mean when a few giant companies control hope?” This changed everything for me in terms of the way I see the bees and my work with them.
The visual element of this piece has become a symbol of my work in and of itself. It is an echo of that moment on the floor with the bee in 2008. Something tiny became big for me.
