“Courtnie”
the honeybee
Scientific
name: Apis mellifera
Geographic location: Lawrence, KS, USA
Artist: Jessa Huebing-Reitinger
Medium: Oil on Canvas 60” x 72” 2005
Performance venue: The Johnson County Library, Overland Park,
KS. USA
“Courtnie”
is a Kansas honeybee and was provided by the Kansas University
Entomology Department. A honeybee was chosen as the subject
for our live performance at the Johnson County Library because
it is the state insect for Kansas. Although honey bees aren’t
indigenous to the United States, they were introduced into
Eastern North America in the early 1600’s. Most of the
commercial honey bees in the U.S. are derived from a honey
bee subspecies introduced into the U.S. from Italy in the
mid 1800’s, Apis mellifera ligustica.
Throughout
the painting, “Courtnie” resembled a wasp more-so
than a honeybee as the golden little hairs were the last details
to be implemented. “Courtnie” took 5 weeks to
complete and was the first known painting ever created for
an artist in residency program to take place within a public
library in the USA. The original painting was gifted to the
Johnson County Library Foundation in appreciation for their
community educational resource excellence.
