We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matt Willey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Matt, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

At 46 years-old I reinvented my career by starting The Good of the Hive, a global art project based in my personal commitment to hand-paint 50,000 bees (and other pollinators) in murals and installations around the world.

The first mural was intended to be just one mural with the intention of raising some awareness about what people used to call Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. Bees were absconding or dying in the hive in massive numbers around the world and people were trying to understand why. I didn’t see people talking about it in the media, so I had the idea to paint a mural of giant bees on a wall to draw some attention to the issue. I had no background in environmental art or activism, but I felt strongly about doing something.

It is a much longer story, but suffice to say, I had to take several big leaps of faith to start the project.

Matt, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been painting murals for 30 years.

In 2008 I met a honeybee on the floor of my studio in Manhattan and she changed the way I see the world. This “bug” that I had avoided like a flying stinger changed before my eyes into a beautiful fuzzy little animal. I connected with her over the course of two hours as she walked the last 2 inches of her life.

When she died, I put her out in the backyard and came inside and started researching honeybees. I learned about Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD almost immediately and wondered how this globally devastating thing is happening and I hadn’t heard anything about it? This got me even more curious and I started reading about behaviors of the bees. I came across altruistic suicide or altruistic self-removal from the hive. This is a behavior of the bees where if they feel sick and they are in the hive, they will exit the hive and fly off into the abyss for “the good of the hive.” This is where the name of the project and organization came from 7 years later. The interesting part is that they take this drastic act because they are basically hard wired to perceive their immune system as collective. Their health is not based on their individual bee body. It is based on the health of the hive. I wondered if CCD was a mass exodus based on the bees feeling sick? Was this ancient behavior being triggered by something in the environment? I also thought about my own immune system and how it is linked to the health of the world around me as well. But humans are not hard-wired the same way. We are wired for choice, not change. This was a lightning bolt moment for me and a paradigm shift in how I was to see the world going forward.

It took 7 years before I painted the first mural for The Good of the Hive. It was in LaBelle, Florida. But that mural experience launched what has become 50 murals and installations from California to Beijing with over 10,000 bees (and counting). The container for the project is to hand-paint 50,000 bees – the number in a healthy hive – around the world. The bee to her hive is us to our world. The whole project is a symbol, but one that is actively out in the world engaging with real people. As I keep learning and growing, I share what I learn along the way. The idea is to paint toward health, rather than constantly highlight the problems.

The Good of the Hive is not a normal business model. It is a socially conscious, for benefit business despite often being perceived as a non-profit. And money is not, nor will it ever be, the bottom line. This is about bees and people. Money comes somewhere after that.

The mission is to get people curious about the planet we live on through the lens of art, bees and storytelling. I paint murals, speak, throw dance parties, panel discussions, dinners and I am currently producing and directing the first feature length documentary film about the project.

There are many reasons I am doing this that are both personal and as a service. I believe we have an epidemic of loneliness happening and I believe it is a root cause of much of the anxiety felt by people around the world. The feeling of separation is an illusion in many ways. The essence of the bee is connection. She is also the symbol of a purpose driven life. Artists naturally have this. it is something that stirs in us all the time. I wanted to try to share that and possibly inspire a bit of it even in those that do not make art.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I am hand painting 50,000 bees in murals and installations around the world. The idea is not to hurry up and finish. The number is based on a healthy number of bees in a hive and is meant to take approximately 21 years to complete.

People do not change quickly. But my theory is that in the arc of one human life from birth to adulthood, change is possible.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I was taught in art school that being an artist is a solo occupation. I operated this way for many years. Currently, I am very interested in leaning into collaboration and growing this project to resemble more of a hive. This is like learning a new language for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: TheGoodoftheHive.com
• Instagram: @thegoodofthehive
• Facebook: @thegoodofthehive
• Linkedin: Matt Willey
• Twitter: @goodofthehive
• Youtube: @thegoodofthehive

Image Credits
Anna Walker Nick Patrick Cameron Nielsen