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          • Rebecca Zablocki | Bed Rest
          • Power Figures Group Exhibition
        • Fucigna, ...Just wait a few minutes
      • 2019 >
        • Johnson, Hochberg, Menagerie
        • Rowley, Ng, Intersections
        • Collamore, Inside Out
        • Holmes, Crowley, Hanson
        • Manning, Ike, Shifting Parameters
        • Dancy, Dente, McDougall
        • Breslin, Clinard, 8th Annual CPI
        • Freed Formats: the book reconsidered
        • Then, What If? | Launchpad Exhibition
        • Feder, Herpich, Zetterstrom
      • 2018 >
        • Still Life - Untethered
        • Julie Pereira & Paper Rock Scissors
        • Presence: Encounters with the Figure
        • Raimi Slater & No Man's Land
        • Joseph Saccio, All Things Natural
        • Rosenberg, Lavery, Pesonal identities
        • Grzyb, Hesse, Pinette
        • Kennedy, Maine, Newman
      • 2017 >
        • Figure This
        • Personal Territories, Prentice, LaMonica
        • Balco, Carrigan, Stengade
        • Hong, Rohlfing & Water, Water Everywhere
        • Branson, Tost, Viens & Waite
        • 2017 Juried Show
        • Mazzocca, Nazari, Werner
        • Lage, Scullion, Paolucci
        • Busby, Byrne & Stockamore
      • 2016 >
        • In and Of The Land Part II
        • ABSTRACTION Part !
        • Borawski/Lasar/Horne
        • NCCC 50th Anniversary
        • Moutoussamy-Ashe/ Walker/ Gilman
        • Gregson | Holzman | Rosen
        • Grossman | Colbert | FPG Incubator Artists
        • Howe | Kendra | Detrani
        • Dente, Shortell, McClean
      • 2015 >
        • Pendleton/Eddinger/Jenkins
        • Calafiore/Objects & Ideas
        • Giuntini,Lindroth,Knaus
        • La Motta, Sobel, Roosen
        • Funt, Incandela
        • Mandrile/Jaffee/Shapiro
        • Both One and Another | Juried Show
        • Berg, Gort, Gregg
        • Bracken/Packer+Lauretano/Starcevic
        • Leger/Danzinger/Freidman
      • 2014 >
        • Danielle Mailer / Cut & Paste
        • In & of the Land
        • Ati Maier, George Cochrane & Jim Lee
        • Power Boothe & Joe Fig
        • DeMonte, McGowin & Shutan
        • Donovan / Quadland / Feder
        • Myers / Shpanin / Singh / Wallengren
        • Finnegan/Evans/Caldwell
        • Bock / Bramble / deNeergaard / Myers / Thorpe
        • Gulino / Scoville / Perdue
      • 2013 >
        • Looking Through a Glass, Darkly
        • Jennifer Sabella >
          • Artist Statement
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        • A Minor Selection...
        • Joy Wulke
        • Bill Gusky
        • Janet Slom
        • Jenni Freidman >
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      • 2012 >
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        • Sara Conklin
        • T H I N K • A G A I N
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        • Cynthia Cooper & Ruth Sack
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        • Brian McClear: Beyond Surface
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        • Today//Tomorrow
        • Fashion Drawings by Norman G Bourque
        • Marjorie Sopkin: Diversions
        • Past, Present, Future
        • Chains, Rain And Moments That Hold Us
        • American Dream: Peter Cusack
        • Annex: Carole Rabe & Susan Rood
        • Annex: Nature Impressions
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        • Small Works 2019
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        • Annex: Draw-A-Thon 2
      • 2018 >
        • Holiday Sale
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        • Shape & Texture: Brian Smith
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        • Jacobs & Ozga: Dreamland, USA
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        • FP Annex: Ian James Roche
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Susan Bradley

Picture
http://susanbradleyportfolio.com

At the heart of my current work is Apis mellifica, the honeybee and its culture.

Humans and bees have a mythical relationship dating since prehistoric times as depicted in drawings on the walls of Arana Cave in Spain of humans gathering honey with bees flying
about. My first encounter with a wild hive, an organic labial shape, took my breath away.
It left me in one of those rare moments of grace when there are no words. It inspired me to
create two human shaped, traditional skep derived, sculptures that I visualize within a larger installation of many similar shaped sculptures varying in size and generalized shape. I place
yellow footprints on the floor in front of the woven sculptures echoing bee dance designs, reminiscent of old dance lessons creating another link between humans and bees; of dance
and communication. Footprints serve as a metaphor of network and a sense of place,
direction and communal activity. The materials and techniques I use for my sculptures are
taken from the traditional constructive methods of old fashioned skeps; the domed woven structures bees were kept in before the invention of the commercial boxes, or “supers” in use today. Combining the craft of older and gentler bee keeping apparatus with human form recalls once more the long intertwining history of human and bee culture. The sculptures also represent the outer shell, the form, the “hive” in which souls reside as inspired by the spiritual element of honey bees as described in innumerable documents and seen in countless artifacts from through-out the ages.

My large bee dance drawings depict the profound way bees communicate the location of food through movement or “dance”. Keen and extensive observation has lead to this understanding, primarily thru Dr. Karl Von Frisch’s “most painstaking, ingenious, unflagging work.” When drawing the large bee dance shapes I use the span of both arms, repeating the shape over and over; repetition creates a rhythm, an obsessive dance, and the drawing takes on this energy. I invite viewers to participate, adding to the drawing so their arm spans, touch and energies are a part of the drawings, creating a connection among us. Then, our many lines will become one vibration, a whole, and a celebration of life.



Five Points Gallery
33 Main Street
PO Box 1028
​Torrington, CT 06790

​FPG Phone: 860.618.7222

Gallery Open:
Tuesday, Thursday 1-4pm
Friday, Saturday and Sunday 1-5pm
& by appointment​
Five Points Art Center
855 University Drive
​PO Box 1028
​Torrington, CT 06790

Art Center Phone: 860.618.2167

Five Points Art Center is open by appointment only
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Five Points Center for the Visual Arts is a 501c3 non-profit organization with support from:
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