Saturday 9 February 2013

Bronze Beehives in Galway.

Late in 2011, after an open competition, I was commissioned by a National School in Galway to produce some sculpture for the school grounds. The brief directed that the sculpture reflect, in some way, the ethos of the school and also that it relates to a story. After some research I came across the story of Saint Modomnoc who, it was said, introduced bees from Wales to Ireland (much in the same way that Saint Patrick rid Ireland of snakes). In my application I proposed to make several bronze beehives and also have a workshop and a presentation with the school children. At this presentation I told the children the story of Modomnoc and made these illustrations for that purpose.






Original concept sketch. The idea was beehives in a Dr. Seuss style. 



                     Beehives in the foundry


                                                                   
                                                                       Installed 



















                                                                
This commission was installed in September 2012. It was a lot of fun to make and the teachers and students at the school were very enthusiastic. Thanks to Eoin Collins for the photos.















3 comments:

  1. These are fantastic! I am a beekeeper, and a Catholic. I'm doing some research on St. Modomnoc. I'd love to have one of these in my apiary, but what I'm really looking for is a statue of St. Modomnoc to put in there. Unfortunately, I haven't found one yet. I'll keep looking though. TC

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  2. Hi TC.
    Thanks very much. If you have not yet found a statue of Saint Madomnoc I can make one for you. You can contact me on markrode@yahoo.com
    Regards, Mark.

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  3. Hello Mr. Rode - My office is currently producing a workshop curriculum for Orthodox churches about bees and caring for creation. A part of the series includes a section about St. Modomnoc. I was wondering if you would grant permission for us to use some of your images from the lesson you created? Here is a link to our work Office of Youth Ministry- Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA - www.uocyouth.org. Thank you!

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