For the love of honeybees
Friday, July 8th, 2011I’ve been having a delightful week and sharing and enjoying the mutual love of honeybees. The most awesome Robin was back to visit Maine during her annual summer break from teaching in Argentina and as the daughter of a seasoned beekeeper we added a honeybee (& dragonfly) to this ongoing representation of all that is precious and important in her life. The honeybee signifies home and the sweetness of family and the continuity of the hive as the place we always return to. The dragonfly is for her next chapter and as such its mysteries are yet to be revealed.
As one who completely and passionately adores bees myself, I have been distilling my honeybee design, each one changes slightly while certain elements remain constant. I have been especially inspired by the idea of a bee made of five hearts and a circle: the head is one heart, each set of wings another pair and the abdomen also a heart all radiating out of the central cirlcle that is the thorax which has a heart in its center. It was such a pleasure to create this tattoo and spend time with Robin, it was also truly special to be able to create a bee to honor her Dad not only on Robin’s behalf but also from me as a novice beekeeper giving some props to one who has gone before me.
So with Robin’s blessing I took the bee graphic that I had created for her tattoo and I adapted it into a t-shirt design. I have one on order for myself in lavender with violet ink. I’ll post pix when I receive it. Coincidentally a friend recently turned me on to the most amazing AND local soda that is only sweetened with honey by a new company from Brunswick Maine called Green Bee SodaSo to give a nod to the best soda EVAR I made a green bee version too.
The gloriousness of Mother Nature’s summer in Maine has been outdoing herself these last few weeks and when I have not been making art I’ve been hanging out with the bees. The girls, their mom and their few brothers appear to be thriving, zooming in and out of the hive loaded with the bounty of this good green earth. Here are some photos of my dear ones.
