Senior Designer Laura Woodruff created the latest front panel for the Genesee Studio, and describes its creation and inspiration for us:

“For this piece, I chose to use pastels (the chalky kind). It’s a medium that I used throughout college and always enjoy working with. I can build up vibrant color, achieve a great level of detail, and have the freedom to use an eraser when I need to add a highlight or remove an area.

I did an initial pencil sketch, then built up layers of pastel (sometimes using my finger to blend), starting with the background and moving towards the foreground, ending with the bumble bee.

“I’ve always had an appreciation of insects and spiders. The way they look and operate is fascinating to me. When I was younger, I’d spend lots of time lying on the ground watching ants work on their hills, searching for potato bugs, or looking at spiders and their webs in our front bushes. Bumble bees have always made me smile. I think people can tend to see insects as gross or frightening, so with this illustration I wanted to convey how furry and delightful bumble bees have always appeared to me.”

We thank Laura, and the bees do, too. Two thirds of the world’s crop species depend on pollen transfer to survive and bees are the most important pollinators.