My first book and thesis exhibit
During my senior year as a college student, my school gave me the opportunity to have my own exhibit along with 10 of my colleagues as our big final project as Illustration majors. For my exhibit, I wanted to spread awareness about how important bees and other pollinating insects are to our ecosystem. I started with my book Interesting Facts About All Kinds of Pollinators. I didn't want to let bees take all of the spotlight as many other pollinating insects exist and greatly benefit all different types of plants. My book teaches fun facts not only about bees, but also bumblebees and wasps. I really want to bring down the common stereotype that "all wasps are evil" or "Bees are nice but wasps aren't". It's quite untrue! You can view some of these facts in the slideshow above, which contains the cover and two pages from each chapter.
I then developed a fun prompt; what better way to get people involved in an art school than to make them pick up a pencil and create something of their own? Create your own Beesona! is the name of this fun activity where I incorporated a plain sketchbook into my exhibit and urged visitors to create their own bee character with provided pencils. Three special designs were chosen and drawn into an illustration with my own beesona enjoying a cup of tea. You can view the winners below. You can also view images of my exhibit and its setup below.