The Bee Keeper

Bee Keeper, oil on canvas, 62"x44", Steven Rhude

Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will be in the next moment.

Vicktor Frankl

Domesticating honeybees has turned out to be a fragile and complicated part of contemporary post modern life. Without a doubt, the death of honeybees has accelerated in the last decade; just as the rural out migration of humanity has also accelerated to the urban jungle, leaving most people alienated from the importance of bees until the honey supply in the pantry runs low.

Bee Keeper, (detail)

 Honeybees have always had enemies, even before we domesticated them. But a list of current threats to their existence would include moths, mites, viruses, bacteria, the heat of summer and the cold of winter. Particularly disturbing is the pesticides we put on plants they pollinate and ironically, also the pesticides used to protect bees from other insects. By helping them we are also killing them. There's California and the almond crop, and the widespread disease which results from such intense and colossal pollination. An act of sharing which has come to threaten the existence of bees as our modern age of industrial farming becomes more corporatist in practice. Topping the list of threats is CCD or Colony Collapse Disorder. In 2007 this ailment reduced 1/3 of American beehives to empty boxes. Not a rosy picture and current data in Canada is just as bleak.

Bee Keeper, (detail of a smoker)

I don't pretend to understand bees or the mystery of their purpose and beauty, but I do hang out with a bee keeper friend of mine. This portrait is another in a long line of images that have come to reflect and record a rural life in Nova Scotia I consider to be profoundly rewarding in so many ways; yet at the same time, experiencing a serious challenge to its future. I wondered for years why someone would want to spend time with insects that sting and generally intimidate most people when they approach a hive (me included). But Bee Keepers are a rare breed that more than ever bring us into a world of a sophisticated democracy we could learn much from.

Bee Keeper, (detail of hand)

    
The future of the honeybee is crucial to all of us, and makes rural life all the more important to understand, especially in terms of food security and food strategies.  They are the contemporary canary in the mine shaft. Like an old testament prophet, the bee keeper reminds us of this and the larger picture we are all willing participants in.    

As for rural life, the below video is a superb commentary by Kate Oland on the relevance of contemporary rural society in Nova Scotia. If you have some time, I highly recommend watching it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT6RTfY7AwQ&feature=relmfu


Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS.