Rusty Patched Bumble Bee

Maya Sophie Stansbury is a Polish-American artist based out of Asheville, North Carolina. She earned her BFA with a minor in biology from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, where she developed a distinctive artistic practice which merges environmentalism with intricately adorned ceramics. Taking nature as her model, the artist forms a tactile and aesthetic connection to the colors and textures of the natural world. These ceramic creations involve complex subtractive carving of the surfaces, yielding alluring delicate landscapes. This technique pushes the boundaries of clay, often resulting in structural vulnerabilities during firing--an allegorical nod to humanity's exploitation of nature. The negative spaces in her artworks symbolize the destabilization of ecosystems and the decline of habitats and species. Through her intricate ceramics, she invites us to appreciate the fragile beauty of our world and consider the urgent need for its protection.

This sculptural piece captures the Rusty patched bumble bee, a species endemic to North America. This extraordinary bee was on the early frontlines of the movement to raise awareness and efforts for pollinator conservation in the United States. This piece was thrown on the wheel in sections then an extruder was used to sculpt the honeycomb hive structure. The surface was then further altered, by cutting out a network of negative spaces, and carving out reliefs at different depths into the clay surface. Underglaze paints were then carefully applied to the surface, and layered in between kiln firings to build up depth and vibrancy of color. The piece was glaze fired to cone 04, low fire in an electric kiln. From there, the artwork became an ongoing project that continued to be altered and refined, with the final alteration being made to fuse the round top section to the base using Archie bray clay to sculpt the two into each other. The attachment site was completed using acrylic paint.