Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Willey
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I painted my first mural for The Good of the Hive in 2015. But the idea was inspired years earlier, in 2008, by a chance encounter with a honey bee on the floor of my studio in NYC. She had landed in the middle of the rug and was moving slowly so I had an opportunity to get down on the floor with this little bee and really study her. I had never noticed the puppy-like cuteness in a bee before. It was the fuzziness, the big eyes and antennae that did it. In the 2 hours that we spent together, I connected with her.
After she died, I put her out in my backyard, came back in and started researching honey bees online. I came across Colony Collapse Disorder almost immediately, which was a huge mystery back then. Millions of bees were dying and disappearing all over the world. I remember thinking “How have I not heard anything about this?” I got even more curious and started looking at the behaviors of bees when I came across ‘altruistic self removal from the hive.’ This is if a bee feels sick and they are in the hive, they will exit and fly off into the abyss for ‘the good of the hive.’ This is where the name of the project came from 7 years later. They take this drastic action because they are hard wired to understand that their health is based on the health of the hive, not their individual bee body. This was a lightning bolt moment for me. I realized that our immune system is the same way, but we don’t act like it.
I had been painting murals for over 20 years at that point and so I decided to try and find a place to paint a mural about what was going on with bees.
It was 7 years later when a friend finally reached out to me with a potential wall. It was the side of a 5th generation honey company in LaBelle, Florida. So I called them up and asked if they would like a mural of bees. Rene, the owner, said, “We would love a mural of bees, but we have no money for something like that, the town has no money for a mural and on top of that, murals are illegal in our town.
I knew I would get caught by the police because I paint pretty slowly, but I told Rene that if she got the law changed, I would figure out a way to fund it. I like money the much as the next person, but I also believe that in our current society we put money ahead of some very important things. Plus, I figured this was never going to happen. We had a nice conversation and hung up the phone and I thought to myself, “I am never going to hear from them again.”
Two months later, Rene called me back and told me they got the law changed. And then she asked me when I was coming.
There is more to the story, but that first mural launched the idea to hand-paint 50,000 bees in murals and installations around the world. 50,000 is the average number of bees in a healthy hive. It has been 9 years, over 10,000 bees in 52 murals and installations and I feel like In am just getting started.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The challenges of painting public murals is often about things like the weather, the heat, trying to finish the actual painting and talk to people passing by.
I also wrestle with this idea of growth. There is such a push to go big with everything nowadays – especially something that people see as having an impact. But growth is not always good, especially if someone isn’t ready. It has taken me many years to feel like I can guide the success of this project without losing myself or the vibe in the process.
I see all of the obstacles as a part of the project. In order to overcome our differences and start to work together to balance our impact on the planet, we are going to run into uncomfortable problems. Painting on site and having actual human interaction and discussions about bees, biodiversity, climate etc fuels my belief that people, although very different, are also very similar when it comes to the core of what we all want.
Another obstacle I have run into is the fact that I come at conservation and activism through a background as a fine artist/mural painter. I did not study biology or ecosystems or policy. I went to school to learn how to make art. I am trying to learn more about the planet every day while working to communicate what I learn, bring people together and make art. It is a wonderful and exhausting love story at times.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am an artist and the founder of The Good of the Hive – a global art project based in my personal commitment to hand-paint 50,000 honey bees in murals around the world.
Mission: To get people curious about the planet we live on through the lens of art, bees and storytelling.
Vision: A world filled with people that see and experience the connectedness of all things.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
At this point the qualities that I think are most important are perseverance, patience, integrity, optimism and creativity.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://TheGoodoftheHive.com
- Instagram: @thegoodofthehive
- Facebook: @thegoodofthehive
- Twitter: @goodofthehive
