'The Beekeepers' Giclee

In this woodcut print the beekeepers tending their hives in the wilelaiki thickets of Kohala go about the routine activities involved in maintaining healthy honeybee colonies. The second beekeeper from left is smoking a hive to calm the bees so he can open the hive without getting stung. The third beekeeper has just pried the lid off a hive and will lift out the frames examining development of the honeycomb, the location and state of the queen and looking for the myriad of subtle clues that tell the story of how the hive is functioning. The first beekeeper is carrying a hive loaded with honey to the truck, where they will transport them to the warehouse for harvesting. "The Beekeeper" is a homage to the 1568 drawing of the same title by Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel. Scholars have analyzed this mysterious drawing of three beekeepers and a boy in a tree, indicating that it refers to the conflict between the Catholic and Protestant churches. In this Hawaiian version I recreated Bruegel's d