Crystal Hartman
Watercolor, Pen and Ink, Jeweler

Crystal came to study and record two of the wild bee trees in Willowtail woods. She began to study other bees and pollinators while she was here. The series of long [up to 25 ft.] scrolls on rice paper with watercolor are truly exquisite and ethereal.

“When I came to Willowtail I thought I would keep drawing [the way I did in my studio, cold, influenced by the harsh realities of the honey bees’ current situation], but the first day [of my residency] I went to visit wild honeybees and their warmth and the warmth of this place, the quiet, the way you can hear a honey bee from a long ways off grabbed my heart and everything changed. My whole approach to their story and the way I want to share their story is much warmer now.”

2015 Durango Art Center and Willowtail Scholarship

2018 Willowtail Scholarship