Lost wax is the six-thousand-year old process for casting metal objects and sculptures using a wax model. The wax disappears as the metal takes its place. “Found Wax” is the title of a sculpture show by artists and beekeepers David Formanek and Susan Medyn at Dartmouth Cultural Center in May. They explore the nature of wax itself in their newest works, with beeswax produced in their apiaries or paraffin canning wax from the hardware store.

Medyn’s new works are co-created by the honeybees who respond to objects she inserts in their hives. They may add beeswax comb in arrays of hexagonal cells to abstract forms of wood, fabric, and chandelier crystal—or they may dismantle her efforts. She frames them as free-standing and wall-hanging objects. Medyn has been working with entomologists to study varieties of insect and human-insect communication.

Formanek creates his newest works by pouring paraffin wax into shallow trays about the size of printer paper. He submerges the molten wax into cold water, fixing the swirling forms at the moment that they congeal. The wax becomes a visual environment for small-scale figural reliefs of unclothed people doing something or nothing, sculpted from life in modeling clay (plasticine). He makes silicone rubber molds of the constructions, and casts them in hydrocal plaster to hang on walls. Currently in brilliant white-on-white, future editions may be colored.

Medyn and Formanek have been making art together since the 1970s. Medyn is chiefly  known for watercolors of imaginary animals and monsters. She became a beekeeper in 2014. Nannaquacket Nectary is her honey business. Formanek’s childhood and youth in Vienna and New York City exposed him to a great range of ancient and contemporary art influences. He holds an MFA from University at Albany (SUNY) and studied architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. A book of his poems will be published later this year. Medyn’s degrees are in social work, also from University at Albany. They moved to Tiverton to a house they designed in 2007.

Dartmouth Cultural Center is located in Padanaram. Admission is free. Hours are Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.