Kavi and Edie were some of the first artists who started by making bees, the classic pollinator. They used bubble wrap for the body and wire for the wings to make the bees light enough to hang.

Leighton is a 23-year-old studio alum who started at Mindy Flexer Art School when he was eight years old, and came back the last week of art camp to fabricate a beehive for everybody’s bees. It seemed fitting that the oldest artist in the show made a home for the artwork of the youngest artists in the show.

Jelani was one of the first artists to experiment with making a large creature by using the same method used in making the bees. He persevered through the challenge of designing self-supporting wings three times his bird’s body width and was amazed by the process and the results.

When Max arrived at art camp, he too wanted to make a giant lizard. Jelani supported him by teaching what he had learned. Together, they built a new creature and a new friendship.

When the design team met the first day, they wanted one of the focal points of the show to be a bird’s nest with birds circling around it and flying up into the skylight. Tess and Maya amazed themselves when they engineered a 4’ nest that was big enough for a person.

Tess, pictured here, and her work partner, Maya, discovered they could use clear packing tape, glue, and tissue paper to make their hummingbird’s wings transparent.

Kaya, Ruth, and Mae built on this process when they finished the wings of their bird with a fresh layer of packing tape, allowing them to paint on top.

Lee discovered the joys using coat hangers and geometry when he built a monarch butterfly, a famous local pollinator.

When artists were looking for something fuzzy and cute to make, they were excited to learn that not all pollinators are bees and butterflies. Edie, who had been dubious about making even small bees, wholeheartedly threw herself into constructing a lemur the size of her younger brother.

Inspired by
Edie’s ambition, Amalia set forth on the journey
of creating a large pollinator. She chose an opossum because she thinks they are adorable. She loved the process so much that she made three babies for her opossum. Other artists also made unexpected pollinators: a hedgehog, a honey badger, lizards, and mice.

Frances designed this large flower to welcome people into the installation and worked methodically day after day to realize her vision. She invented a way to thread wire through its petals’ edges to make them curl and wave.

Minya researched and prototyped origami flowers. She chose the five-petal pattern you see throughout the show, and taught it to a team of other artists.

Prior to art camp, a community "art make-in" prepared donated hubcaps with their first coat of solid color paint. McKenzie, Liam, and Imogen painted and decorated the hubcaps to transform them into flowers. Meanwhile, Audrey got excited about the origami possibility, found a way to make origami bees, and led the origami team to make a whole swarm.

McKenzie, pictured here, in partnership with Molly and Mindy, designed and created the cut-out sun now installed on the yellow wall. The sun s light is revealed in the negative spaces of the cut out sun. This process taught us a lot about geometry, including the need to design it in sections so it could fit into the space of a car when transporting it to Woodmere. Amber, a studio alum who returned on the last day of art camp to help, assisted McKenzie in painting. Younger students were amazed to learn that Amber had started working at Mindy’s studio when she was their age.

The first layer of moon painting was done by a team that included Lucy, Imogen, Helene, and Audrey. Then McKenzie worked her artistic magic, collaging elements on top.

As the project progressed, our community of artists decided to create a wall of day and a wall with a sunset transitioning into night. This was an all-hands-on-deck task! Luckily, earlier experiences with tissue-paper collaging gave us the idea of using a paint roller rather than brushes to apply the glue. We also decided to divide the labor into glue and tissue paper teams. It was a thrilling day!

Installing our show was also an all-hands-on-deck task. Many thanks to Petra and Jamal and their son, Jelani, for helping out on our first day. Our deepest thanks go to all of the other parents and ancestors too, whose love and care have sustained us. We shine in the light of their love.