Tears of the Sun God

mixed-media painting

I'd forgotten all about this micro painting of a honey bee. I'd put it away in a dresser, and until a few days ago, when I discovered it in my studio tucked inside an envelope,thought it was lost. At least a decade ago I became interested in miniature portrait painting after seeing Elizabethean miniatures called limnings that were painted on a thin slice of ivory. I've always loved working on a small scale, which infuriated my art professors (and a couple art directors), who always admonished me to go bigger. I always thought their criticism was a little Freudian. Is bigger always better? Talk show hosts with bigger mouths, celebrities with bigger egos, politicians with bigger scandals? I think not. In any case, I listened to them, went big, but I didn't like a lot of the work I created. I like the intimacy of working on a small scale and once I saw the scale of Frida Kahlo's brilliant, (and relatively small) paintings, I gave myself permission to work on a more intimate scale again. I dabbled with miniatures for a very brief time and began painting modern madonnas with sunflower halos, women with birds for hair, hands with eyes in the palms. My subject material soon morphed and extended to anything that caught my interest. I painted tiny images that I wore as pins. I gave most of them away, but I still have the Eye of Fatima and Venus of Willendorf paintings. I wish I still had my Martin Luther King Jr. pin I wore in honor of his day.

Years ago, a bee farmer used to bring his hive and place it in the field behind my home. I loved sitting by the hive, listening to the insistent hum as the bees went about their quotidian duties. I don't know what happened to the beekeeper or his bees. He probably retired from the business.

Bees hold a revered spot in all mythologies and belief systems. They were thought to be tears of the sun god Ra, embodiments of divinity, muses, messengers, omens. Great thinkers, such as Plato and Sophocles associated themselves with bee symbolism, as did popes, kings, historical figures of every sort. Even countries and states claim the bee. Incidentally, the bee is the state insect of Utah, because industry is queen here, (there is only room for a queen, singular, in the hive, which reminds me of the great Queen Bee herself, Queen Elizabeth I's declaration, "I shall have here but one mistress and no master." Here are a few links that may prove interesting: thebeegoddess; beemythology;Did You Know?

In ancient times, bees and beekeepers were sacred. Beowulf, you know the macho Anglo-Saxon capable of tearing Grendel's arm from it's socket with his bare hands,from the epic everybody had to read, way back in high school? his name means beekeeper, and during this his period, the keeper of the bees and the honey, was a very big deal, probably because, all symbolism aside, mead is made from honey, and mead was a staple of the Anglo-Saxon's diet. Belly up to the bar Thanes, Beowulf is in the meadhall! Grab your favorite beverage and check out Beowulf, the film for an entertaining evening.

Mead is beer, just in case you didn't know. I never acquired a liking for beer, but I made a batch of mead, just because. It tasted a little sweet, but, it tasted like beer.

Here's a basic recipe:
Suggestion: if you want to get into the Anglo-Saxon spirit,I suggest you purchase your honey from a beekeeper at the local Farmer's Market. If you really want to get your Viking on, consider not shaving or bathing for a few days prior to making your mead, purchasing a yard of fake fur to wear as a makeshift cape, brandishing your wooden stirring spoon, and declaring pompous,self-referential oaths such as, I (insert name here), am the greatest mead maker (or whatever you'd like to declare: cupcake maker, lover, expectorator) of the 21st century!

Basic Mead:
3 lbs Grade-A Honey
1 gal filtered water
1 pkg ale or wine yeast (do not use Baker's yeast or you will be very, very sorry)

For fruity & spicy mead, add lemon or orange wedges, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger to the basic recipe.

Supplies:
Stainless steel five-gallon pot
Long stirring spoon
Candy thermometer (to let you know when the mead is cool enough to add the yeast)
Fine mesh strainer (to screen foam and dead yeast)
1-2 spotless clean apple cider or milk gallon jugs
Plastic strainer (to siphon mead into bottles)
1-2 hardy balloons (to keep air out as mead ferments)
2-4 wine bottles
2-4 wine corks

Directions:
Boil water.
Stir honey into boiling water.
Turn off heat and stir continuously.
Add fruit slices and spices.
Stir some more.
Remove from heat & cover with a fine clot.
Allow to cool.
Strain foam, fruit and spices.
Pour mixture into gallon jug and add yeast.
Stir mixture until yeast is absorbed.
Cover jug top with balloon and let ferment for 2-3 days (or more).
(Note: the balloon will fill with air, so crack the lip and let the air out, before the balloon bursts, or you will have a mess and an angry spouse or roommate).
Insert plastic sieve into wine bottle neck and pour mead (leaving room for cork).
Secure cork in bottle.
Allow to sit at room temperature for 2-3 days.
Refrigerate.
Drink at will!