The scaffolding that underpins the Bee art works is the geometry of the Bee which I found many years ago in the book Sacred Geometry by Ray Lawler. Over the years I have worked with this geometric form, both with the bee and without it, in painting, drawing, prints, jewellery, and in the public artwork Beneath this Sky in Blacktown.

 For this layered paper work, I have used paper from the French paper mill, Moulin de Larroque, as well as a green Japanese tissue. For me, these papers, speak of a respectful use of the ancient forests that have been sacrificed for our paper needs. Paper has allowed us to communicate, to record and to learn. I have chosen to make marks into the paper rather than onto it, cutting, tearing and folding, or using the burning tool, which I learned about from a group of first nations artists that I worked with in Western Sydney. I sometimes infuse the more transparent papers with bees wax, initially using the wax from an abandoned beehive in the roof of my artists residence cottage.

Decorating the works, there is 24ct gold leaf, and various gems and beads. In particular, I include garnets, bloodstones, that reflect the words of Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, who likens the movement of bees through the landscape with the flow of blood through the human body. The works are held together by lacemaking pins. These, along with the patterning and cutting pay respect to the craft practices of my mother and grandmothers who clothed their families with their needlework and decorated their homes with the crafts made by their hands.