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"Slumbering Bumble Bees" by Valerie Demattei-Selby
16 x 20 inches
oil on canvas
$600
Artist Statement:
Slumbering Bumble Bees” was born from several photographs I took of our wildflower garden throughout the summer. I mashed up different photos of cosmos and many of them had sleeping bumble bees in their petals! These sleepy bees are likely males, as male bumble bees do not go back to the nest at night. Bumble bees sleep in flowers to keep warm and safe, only to wake up with the sun and get back to pollinating once again. The newly fertilized queen bumble bee hibernates through winter while the rest of the nest, including the previous foundress queen and all the worker bees, die off each year. After the winter, the new queen starts a new colony to start the cycle again. Winter can be a sad time, but it can also be cleansing – in preparation for warmer days and another cycle of birth and growth.
About the Artist:
Valerie grew up in the Bay Area, California where she started painting and drawing at a young age. She went on to study fine art in college and had many amazing professors, including Rebecca J. Alex and Noah Buchanan. During her studies, she had the opportunity to spend a semester in Florence, Italy, where she fully immersed herself in art history and especially enjoyed learning about Renaissance and Baroque artistic methods and techniques.
An enriching career in Architecture and Construction honed Valerie’s design and visual composition skills over the next 10+ years. After the birth of her daughter in 2020, she and her family moved to Olympia, Washington where Valerie found a renewed passion for fine art. She is now a resident artist at Boom Studios in Olympia.