Bees/Pills, Eric Roberts

Bees have long fascinated me in that they not only preserve humans’ lives but also operate one of the most efficient machines in nature, a bio-machine with distinct parts but single purpose. The bees are programmed to know their jobs and complete their tasks without a concept of self. Bees have a unseen but profound benefit to mankind - - through pollinating plants and flowers, honey bees are responsible for one in three bites of food we eat. The benefits to humans of chemicals and drugs are also profound and directly affect our lives. Presence or absence of certain chemicals in our brains like serotonin, which is the chemical structure found in the art, have profound effects on our mood, temperament, and sense of well being. And, just as the bees communicate between themselves with chemicals, our brains are regulated by different chemicals as well. I created the Bees/Pills paintings (from which the Chrome theme is adapted from) starting from the similarity of the honeycomb and the chemical structure diagrams, the shape of the pill and the shape of the bee. But taken further, it invites thoughts of nature as a comparison to machinery or other technology that nourishes us.