Wild Bees and Sweet Honey by Vicky Tibbs

“Wild Bees and Sweet Honey”
Mixed Media on Canvas

Vicky Tibbs
The second stanza of Antonio Machado's poem "Last Night as I Was Sleeping" reads: "Last night as I was sleeping, / I dreamt--marvelous error!-- / that I had a beehive here inside my heart. / And the golden bees / were making white combs / and sweet honey / from my old failures. That stanza impacted me at an important point in my life. We can let our failures engulf us, or learn and grow from them and allow them to sweeten our future with wisdom and light. The process of making art is restorative and connecting for me. It requires me be present in the moment and gives me a way to make sense of what I experience. This piece could be summarized by the phrase attributed to Carrie Fisher: ‘Take your broken heart, and make it into art.’—Vicky Tibbs