Hello, I’m Anne-Marie - artist, illustrator, learning-to-be surface designer and arts educator. Originally from New Hampshire USA, I spent many years in California before settling in the beautiful, tropical city of Darwin, Australia more than ten years ago. Around the time that I was developing my design business and had just landed upon the name Dreaming Bee, I was delighted to discover not one, but two hives of native Australian bees right in my own garden! How lucky am I? I guess some things are just meant to bee…
DREAMING. I’ve always been a day dreamer, regularly drifting into other worlds throughout my waking hours. For me it’s a way to imagine possibilities, the first step to making them real, I suppose. Night dreaming, too, is another way to enter these ethereal zones. Ever since childhood, I’ve had vivid and memorable night time dreams, some of which have become the inspiration for drawings and paintings, following in the footsteps of the surrealists. Dreaming is a space where we process emotional experiences in order to heal, where we improve our problem solving ability, a space where our creativity takes flight. Dreaming allows us to connect with the mysteries of life. Day time or night time, dreaming is the realm of artists.
BEE. In the natural world, bees are vital not only to our food sources, but also to our gardens and wild landscapes. Bees are responsible for the pollination of crops and flowers, sustaining cycles of life as they fly from bud to blossom, sometimes over great distances. Without bees, the earth would be barren of both nourishment and beauty, and we would starve. In another sense, bees are gatherings, usually of women, for the purpose of communal work such as sewing or quilting. Being a life long seamtress and a lover of fabric myself, this meaning of bee is especially significant to me and has been used for centuries to mean working together for the benefit of all. Just as bees in the hive do.
Throughout my life, I’ve connected with others through creative expression, not only to communicate my own artistic ideas but to encourage others to communicate theirs. Over the years I’ve done this in many different ways: designing posters for plays and performances, applying henna tattoos at festivals, selling handmade greeting cards in local shops, illustrating children’s books, painting faux finishes in people’s homes and murals in the community, plus 20 years as an arts educator in the classroom. To interact with others in these ways feels essential to who I am. For me, creative expression is a connection to something greater.
I created Dreaming Bee Studio as a channel to bring my designs into the world, to help people connect and to make the world a more beautiful place.