BEES

About a year after I started printing Gyotaku, I saw a print by another artist of bees and thought how on earth did they do that? 

We all know how important bees are to our environment and the honey bee is an amazing creature.  Working as a colony, they live for a relatively short period of time and literally work themselves to death. 

It's been a pleasure working with local bee keepers here on Anglesey and also over in Manchester. 

For Mancunians, the bee is a very important symbol.  It represents the industrial heritage and the industrious nature of the city but it also took on a new and deeper symbolic meaning after the 2017 Manchester Arena Bombing took place on the night of the 22nd May when Ariana Grande was performing.  Tragically 22 people attending the concert lost their lives and many many more were injured. 

The city and it's people were so outraged that in an effort to show their hurt and come together, many people had tattoo's of bees and bees were painted on buildings, put on car bumper stickers and started to appear just about everywhere. 

I lived in Manchester for over 20 years, my children were all born and educated there, so the city is an important part of our family too.