Hydrant Hyperventilation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I'll be posting today's bug later on....)

I received quite the surprising email late last night...

I am one of 58 artists selected to participate in "HYDRANT HYSTERIA"!

I had written the project off, since the notification date had come and gone a couple of weeks ago and I had heard nothing. (Turns out my own handwriting did me in. One of the numbers in my zip code looked more like a 9 than a 4, rendering the original notification undeliverable. Ooof.) I decided, instead, to focus my energy on my 30 Bugs in 30 Days series! I figured I would create a new challenging project to distract myself from not having been picked. Imagine my surprise when the email arrived! I wasn't sure whether to panic.... vomit.... scream with delight... or a combination of all three?

I spent days working on my design, and I tweeted about it, but didn't want to do an elaborate blog post about it because I was almost certain that I would jinx myself. In fact, I convinced myself that by tweeting about it, the damage had been done.

Since pollinators all around the world are in trouble, I thought a pollinator themed design would be a good way to raise awareness. Of course to most, it might just look like a cute design, but pollinators are so important and they need to be appreciated!

Here's my design: "Pollinator Paradise."
(This wraps around on itself in a cylinder.)
Click to enlarge!

I tried to include almost all of the pollinators I could think of. I will have to work extra hard at making the bat very cute, since I already know people generally have this "Eewwwwww!" attitude toward them.

In the design, the 3 circles/sunflowers and the red flowers going in a circle represent the water outlets (not sure what they are called?). The dark purple part will be painted on the back of the hydrant, and shows the night pollinators.

In a way, I'm worried that my concept might not come across clearly (even though I was dorky enough to print this out on a small scale and make a mock-up hydrant out of a toilet paper tube. YEAH, I DID IT!!!!). But I also think that as long as the flowers and bugs are executed well enough for people to know what they are, with bright colors of course, the design will look nice. Doesn't everyone love colorful butterflies and flowers?!