About Bee Kingdom

Bee Kingdom was reincarnated after the passing of Mecha Glass in 2007. This glass-based studio collective was originally conceived by Ryan Marsh Fairweather, Tim Belliveau and Phillip Bandura in 2004 and has evolved since its birth. The three men graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design from the glass program in 2005 and decided they wanted to pursue an artistic lifestyle\career and built a hot-glass studio in their backyard garage in the northwest of Calgary, Alberta.

Ryan, Tim and Phil live communally and work collaboratively in their studio home. After a couple years experience, trials and errors the three have a sharper focus which includes a fine balance between select designs known as "studio series", custom sculpture\installation and fine art. Collaborative works share aesthetics contributed by the three artists and are also informed by the characteristics of their glass studio.

Bee Kingdom is named so for a couple of reasons. Ryan, Tim and Phillip live and work communally at a seemingly constant non-stop pace. When relating the quality of hot glass it is appropriate to describe it as the same as flowing honey. We also run our own glass blowing studio which we consider our kingdom.

Our attraction to glass is drawn from the natural beauty of glass. Glass as a medium is unique and working with the raw, molten material has limitless possibilities. The process is exciting, team oriented, physically demanding, requires precise coordination and demands your mind's complete presence; it is a richly rewarding medium to work with.

Bee Kingdom has been selected as Pilchuck's 30th Anniversary Centerpiece Designers. In May they traveled to Stanwood, WA, home to world-reknowned Pilchuck Glass School; operating with an amazing team of volunteers, aka the Poleturners, and 10 days, they completed 130 glass centerpieces designed by Bee Kingdom. The glass pieces are made for the school's annual auction which is held in Seattle on October 30th, 2008 and helps fuel Pilchuck's annual running costs. Thank you Poleturners!!!

What is your artwork about (underlying concept, focus, themes, intent, etc)?

Our glass practice is inspired by a collaborative approach. The three of us graduated together from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2005, live in the same home and share the glass studio. Our work is about working cooperatively as a group, focusing on each other’s strengths to create the best work possible and striving for and achieving a common goal.

There are a number of influences we’re fashioned by. The equipment we use largely informs our work, its limitations force us to think creatively to achieve what we want. A lot of our work is larger than our reheat equipment so we had to come up with some alternative methods to achieve the scale we’re after.

Other aesthetic influences include vivid colour and form. We aim to find a pleasing balance or relationship between colours and the shape they carry.

In terms of content we try to refer to a natural phenomenon, these days we’re looking more closely at honeybee culture and pulling concepts and reinterpreting them into glass sculpture.

The three of us also have our own individual practice so those elements often get rolled into the collaborative work so we have quite a vast palette to work from and those ideas are always evolving so there’s something new to create all the time. It’s a really exciting process and it’s fun to watch it grow all the time.

What matters the most is the ability to keep creating! We want to make sure that we keep having fun and continuously being fulfilled because that’s why we’re in it, it keeps us motivated and happy, as long as those things are being achieved then we’re going to continue with the studio.

Do you feel you need to position your work within the context of art history and if so what’s your take on that?

We’re children of the contemporary studio glass movement, which is actually quite young, it started in the early 70s. All the historical figures are still around which is pretty interesting and it’s exciting to be a part of that “big bang” in its history. We feel that we’re evolving into something unique, something that isn’t born from the traditional Venetian style of blowing that’s had an enormous influence of the studio glass movement.

We live and work in the same place it’s important for us to get out so we often have meetings at cafes around town where we discuss concepts, which end up as sketches. Those sketches end up being produced as prototypes where they may or may not deviate from the drawing as a final piece.

Sometimes an idea will be triggered while watching a nature show or reading a passage in a book or something like that and it sparks in image, those are really exciting moments!

Also, we’re always looking at evolving current designs; we are always finding ourselves more capable one week than we were the previous so we’re naturally evolving our skills as we practice on a regular basis.

Our work has evolved a lot in the last 5 years! Our work has grown in scale, complexity and sophistication. We are becoming more recognized as having a distinct style and personality behind the work.

What is currently the central motivation for or conceptual concern in your work?

Currently we’re aiming to have conceptual ties to our collective’s namesake, the bee. It’s a way to make the whole collective package tighter and more aware of itself. We’re trying to bring out the inherent bee-like collectivism in our glass art. Nature tends to have strong design so it’s definitely worth working from! Our work ethic is also reflective of the honeybee in terms of working together so we try to work that angle into our work; our designs are filtered through our three brains to create something that is truly born from a collaborative effort.

Our glass blowing equipment informs our work directly because we need it to create our glass. Our equipment has fundamental limitations in scale so you could think of it as collaboration between the three of us and our equipment. We are always looking at new ways to create work by using our equipment differently. It’s a constant challenge, it’s puzzle solving and it’s satisfying when we learn a new technique without the addition of brand new equipment.

What mediums, techniques, or processes are involved in your art making (and why these)?

We’re mostly all blown glass. We produce metal stands for some pieces but they act as more of a support rather than a sculptural addition. However, we are beginning to explore other mediums such as metal and wood as compliments to our glass.

Glass is a highly addictive process; it demands physical strength, precise coordination and the comfort ability to work with fire. It can be very meditative when you’re having a good day and demands a lot of patience when the glass seems to be fighting with you. Glass has an appealing and unique personality that three of us like to be around. It’s a very social skill so the community is tight knit, all of its members are friendly and willing to help out, you get to meet artists from all over the world, it’s a special thing to be a part of.

What are your other passions in life and how have these influenced your work?

The three of us have similar and varying passions in life. I believe life is a total holistic experience where everything you do influences something else in your life. Sometimes they’re obvious and sometimes they’re not. These influences may directly influence the image you’re working with or it can contribute to your physical and mental nature that glassblowing demands.

Ryan: I am an artist because it’s one of many cravings that live inside of me. There’s something special about bringing an object or idea into the world that wouldn’t be there if I didn’t exist, no matter how great or how minute. It’s a tangible path to discovering myself, the changes that go on around me and my outright expression of my explorations.

Phillip: The reason that I am an artist stems from a need to understand the world around me; I find the process of creation gives me time to think about my self and how I fit into the world. One of the things that I love the most about being a full time artist is the ability to do lots of different jobs. As an artist it’s never just about doing one thing you have to do it all, that keeps life interesting and exciting but not always easy. I love it!

Tim: Asking questions are a big part of myself and my art. I usually develop ideas from myth and natural history, which are major themes for me. Whether I read it or watch it in movies I try to get that content into a form. I’m always hoping my work asks questions of the viewer and brings in other perspectives so that it’s always a learning process about the natural world and the stories we tell with it.