Our black German Shepherd Roxy used to chase big fat bumble bees in our back yard. Thankfully she
never caught one, but the bee found its way into my art. First as a yard art sculpture and then as
decorative imagery that is part of my “Beeware” series. The work is playful, or, as my students say,
“whimsical.” The bees are fat and happy (as most of the whimsical characters in my art are – fat and
happy sharks, cats, dogs and most recently, an alligator.) The technique I use for the “Beeware” series
is called sgraffito, an ancient method that involves painting a black layer of colored clay, called slip,
over the porcelain clay, then carving through the black layer to reveal the porcelain underneath. The
designs I make are organic and unplanned, sketched immediately into the leather hard clay.