AUBURN – It was the unexpected landing of a fragile honeybee on the floor at artist Matt Willey’s New York studio that originated his global quest to paint 50,000 pollinators and it’s the unexpected lure of Nebraska that has provided fresh inspiration.

A year ago Willey was adding to his Good of the Hive project in Beijing, China. He had painted over 11,000 honeybees in 64 murals across five continents. It had been 10 years since LaBelle, Fla., changed its city code to allow a mural at the Harold P. Curtis Honey Co.

He told people his favorite mural was painting four, 22-foot tall bees on the roof of a barn at Lyons, Neb., and his interest piqued when Leslie Clark of the Auburn Creative District called with a story about teacher Louise Howe and 46 Calvert Elementary students traveled to the state Capitol to advocate for naming the honeybee as the state insect in 1975.

 

 

Willey: “It’s really about the story. Part of what I was leaning in to, which Leslie didn’t even know, is that I really wanted to do a bunch of murals around the United States and I was like ‘Nebraska is so America.’

Prompted by fellow artist Trina Merry, a world champion body painter who has been blending people into iconic locations for 20 years, Willey said he was feeling the wear and tear of his international travels.

He told his audience at the Auburn Public Library that sometimes a miracle is just a change of perception.

Merry: “I think anytime an artist is kind of like a lone wolf and working by themselves, when you have a fresh energy from other artists who come in and sort of re-energize your work or inspire you or give you feedback or share in the process, of course, it’s going to kind of reactive you and ignite your passion.”

 

The Auburn project is expected to provide the final touches to a documentary on Willey’s work so far. It is where Merry will paint him as part of his mural for the first time. It’s where he has found harmony in the symbolism of the hive as connectivity between peoples.

Leslie Clark: “The creative district and the chamber of commerce and you know, our community, one of things we are striving for is collaboration and working together for the good of our community. We have been sharing that story and that’s one of the things that drew me to Matt.”

Willey: “Any separation we think we have from any other people in the world is an allusion at a very real level.”

Clark said the symbolism of the Good of the Hive is growing in Auburn and she hopes it continues to flow throughout the state.