Bees, Pollinators, Sunflowers and Mexico

A few years ago I began drawing bees, exploring ways in which I might interpret and present different species of bee. How could I make these small insects meaningful and beautiful as drawings?

This problem-solving process led me to think and read about our long relationship with bees. That, in turn, led to other subjects - our dependence on pollination for crops and food, our relationship with nature, our place in delicately balanced eco-systems, and our need to tell stories about the world around us whether rooted in fact or myths that often reveal deep reverence and gratitude for Mother Nature.

My reading took me to Ancient Egypt and Greece for deities linked to bees, to Mexico for the long history of native sunflowers and their link to the Sun Gods of Central and South America, to contemporary science where we’ve found sunflowers can help in the clean up of radiation, and to beekeeping - something we have been doing for millennia, the world over, using the wonder that is honey and beeswax in myriad ways.

I had the chance to develop this into a series with many threads. Currently I’m thinking about movement of species and migration with the most recent drawings featuring swallows. It’s astonishing to me that every year in late Summer they leave for the much warmer climate of the Southern Sahara flying thousands of miles.