Bee Business, 96" x 120", oil and assemblage on canvas, 1986. Museum collection.

The "U" at the top right of this large canvas is appropriated from a Venn diagram and symbolizes a theoretical "universe". This large "staged" canvas is constructed of two separate elements with the "joining area" of loose canvas articulated with layers of applied duct tape symbolizing a fissure in the picture plane that will not "mend" by physical means. The two fish at the lower left--one fully painted, one in outline--are appropriated from a still life by Manet. The two fish (in a fish bowl) at the lower right are appropriated from a painting by Matisse. The large diagram which horizontally traverses the two elements of the picture plane is a schematic drawing of the anatomy of a honeybee which I appropriated from an entomology textbook about bees. The illustration, along with various elements of the bee's physiology, specifically indicates the location of the "honey stomach"--"h.st.".

One part of the business of Bee Business has to do with "pollination" as a metaphor. The bee directly participates in the pollination process in nature, as well as formally, and symbolically in this painting. There are two halves of the canvas, two abstract goldfish living in their microcosmic fish bowl on the right, two representational carp which are dead (removed from their element) on the left, all of which are, on several levels, symbols of a dualistic nature. The bee is a symbol for pollination, which is a metaphore for the fertilization of a seed, and fertilization is the act of joining two elements of a dual nature into one.