Deep Dive: Birds & Bees by Pam Weber

Artist: Pam Weber
Puzzle Designer: Jasen Robillard
Dimensions: 27.5 cm x 27.5 cm
Piece Count: 284
Difficulty: 3 out of 5

Pam Weber was born and raised in Kitchener (Ontario), graduated with a Fine Art Major from the University of Guelph, raised a family in Ottawa and finally settled with her husband and 3 sons in Calgary in the summer of 1995. Pam combines her experience with printmaking, collage and mixed media, along with the use of vibrant, bold, versatile acrylic paint. Her creative process involves an initial sketch and then a layering of her paints - layer upon colourful layer with mark-making and stencilling texturally incorporated into the canvas. Harmonious Alberta Foothills landscapes, playful buildings, whimsical wildlife and trees with personality dominate her art. 

"My paintings tell a story, but the story told depends on the viewer. My style is a culmination of all I have learned, applied and experimented with over the years.”

She is an active member of the Alberta Society of Artists, Calgary and an associate member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, Vancouver.

Links

Lightly watermarked reference image
Note, reference images are watermarked to prevent unauthorized printing of our artist's work, as well as copycat puzzles which have become common since 2020.

Pam Weber Artist Website

"A Day in the Life" feature article on Pam Weber in the Calgary Guardian

Pam's Artist Page at the Bluerock Gallery in Diamond Valley

Shop: Pam Weber - Birds & Bees 

Puzzle Design Notes

Pam and I first started talking about a puzzle collaboration back in April 2020. It’s surprising looking back through my email archives at how quickly time has gone, and how much has happened since we first discussed the project.

Right off the bat, the idea was to design a puzzle consisting of four thematically linked panels. Based on Pam’s most popular art pieces, we bandied about several ideas including pets, Alberta Foothills farming landscapes and eventually settled on Birds & Bees based on existing pieces she had recently completed (Love at First Sight, Power of Flowers, All in the Family, and The Big Buzzer). Pam’s son Nigel sent over digital photos and we planned to get started on the project in March 2021…

Fast forward to today, nearly two years later!

I would have loved to get this puzzle designed sooner. Distractions, other projects, family needs and just plain old life got in the way. Or another way of looking at it: perhaps it was all needed to let the seed of this art project germinate at its own pace.

As I was solving the Birds & Bees prototype and making notes for the final edits, I began listening to Rick Rubin’s recently released audiobook “The Creative Act: A Way of Life”. Two friends of mine had independently recommended it to me, and it is now my turn to recommend it to you. It is an aspirational blueprint for the creative process and matches very closely with my own process and philosophy of life. It is filled with art, music and puzzle metaphors. I love it, and if you're the creative type, I think you will too.

I’ll share with you a short excerpt from the chapter entitled Intention. It’s the chapter I listened to as I was putting the final touches to Birds & Bees.

“If we zoom out of our small view of reality, we function more as an instrumentalist in a much larger symphony the universe is orchestrating. We may not have a great understanding of what this magnum opus is, because we can only see the small part we play.

The bee attracted by the scent of the flower, lands on one then another, inadvertently enabling reproduction. Should the bee go extinct, not just flowers but birds, small mammals and humans would also likely cease to exist. It is fair to assume the bee doesn’t know its role in the interconnected puzzle in preserving the balance of nature. The bee is simply bee-ing.

Similarly, the total output of human creativity in all of its kaleidoscopic breadth, pieces together the fabric forming our culture. The underlying intention of our work is the aspect allowing it to fit neatly into this fabric. Rarely if ever do we know the 'Grand Intention', but if we surrender to the creative impulse, our singular piece of the puzzle takes its proper shape.”

Given our upcoming plans for releases this year, you may notice that bees & flowers figure prominently as thematic elements (Queen Bee, Lac la Hache Wildflowers). Rubin’s timely comments above on art and its place in the world ring loudly and true.

Delays and distractions be damned; it seems like this is the right time for Birds & Bees after all. We shall see!

Whimsy List

Multi-piece whimsies or Whimwhams

• 4x Bird feeders
• 2x Bee hives
• Butterfly
• Bee smoker
• Honeypot

Single piece

• 2x Musical notes
• Nest
• Birds
• Bees
• Flowers
• Ladybug
• Squirrel