To see Susan Medyn’s latest work head on over to her new website:
Susan Medyn is a Rhode Island-based ecological artist working on “art with bees”. Her process involves placing textile-based artworks—woven with linen, embroidery, natural materials like seed heads, and beeswax—directly into her hives. Over time, the bees respond by chewing through, building onto, and reshaping the works, becoming co-authors of each piece. To see more of her art with bees, head on over to her new website:
For more information contact Susan at smedyn@me.com or on Instagram @susan_medyn_art_bee_collab.
The Unbroken Thread: A Tribute to Ukraine © Susan Medyn
This piece began as a hand-embroidered textile. The bees then constructed wax comb directly onto and around the fabric, blending instinct with pattern. The result is a living tapestry—part artifact, part ecosystem—that explores coexistence, transformation, and the shared language of artist and hive. One of her many pieces of art in collaboration with bees.
Winged Reliquary (Front and Back Views) © Susan Medyn
Natural and constructed worlds merge in a mirrored duet. Bees were invited to collaborate, weaving honeycomb into a flowing structure that evokes butterfly wings, seedpods, or sacred anatomical forms. Botanical elements embedded in wax anchor the piece in time and mystery. Front and back view of Winged Reliquary art in collaboration with bees.
Poppy Pods © Susan Medyn
Wooden rings form a geometric framework softened by beeswax and comb. Delicate crystal drops and dried poppy pods float within the piece, speaking to transformation, memory, and the tension between order and organic life. Another of her works on art in collaboration with bees.
Interwoven Survival © SusanMedyn
This sculpture invites bees to build upon an armature of twigs, linen, seed heads, and crystals. The resulting form blurs the line between intention and instinct—becoming a quiet protest and reverent reminder that our survival is deeply tied to the smallest architects of the earth. one of her newer works on art in collaboration with bees.
Unbroken Thread © Susan Medyn with Optimist by David Formanek. Formanek is a sculptor and poet and married to Susan Medyn.
Using witch hazel seed pods, linen and silk thread from the Ukraine, caning material and crystals, Medyn collaborates with her bees to create pieces that invite us to think more deeply about our interconnectedness to all things on this planet. Latest work on art in collaboration with bees.
Susan Medyn holding “Hivework: Arc of Collaboration” in her Tiverton, Rhode Island beeyard, 2025. The newest piece Medynwill reinsert into the hive for further amendment by the bees. Her work on art in collaboration with bees is a newer direction for Medyn who has been working on these pieces for the past five years, breaking from her work with intericate watercolor paintings.
