'Celestial Bodies 5# - Bees', Acrylic and pencil on Celestial/Astrological Map from 1845, 27.5x22cm (2013) Unframed.

 

Bees do not seem to be bound by the same laws of nature we are. With the very lightness of thought they defy gravity, especially the bumble bee being seen to fly backwards in a way tat should not really be possible, just as at home in the air as on earth. Forming a link between heaven and earth, conscious and unconscious...

Historically the Egyptians were the first to raise bees, to them the bee was a creature that tranformed the warmth of the sun's rays into golden sweetness in a sacred alchemical process. Our ancestors associated the honey-making process with divine wisdom, and to consume sucha substance could inspire poetry, truths and prophecy...

Like humans, bees have their own society with a hierarchy of Queen bee, worker bees and drones, which to me strongly relates them to our way of life - working hard and co-existing together, yet they have these divine qualities of being able to fly and create nectar which elevates their status beyond us mere mortals....

 

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