Bio
Bee creates comics, paintings, and animations that code their autobiography into fictional metaphors about nature and magic. Their work stems from using drawing and journaling as a form of therapy and meditation to mine their subconscious for the most urgent ideas and problems. Through synthesizing and transforming their doodles and fragmented thoughts into traditional and formal works of art such as animation and paintings, Bee intends to engage viewers with playful and inner child-like content while simultaneously grounding the adult viewer to reflect on their own trauma and subconscious.
Last semester Bee was able to hone in on their photography skills in Patricia Maurides’ Introductory Photography class. From this experience, they were able to spend time outside in their neighborhood and around Long Island/Sewanhackey observing nature and the world around them. This was freeing for them as they got to hike and explore nature as inspiration for photography. Similar to how they synthesize their doodles and musings into more formal works, Bee began manipulating these photographs into digital collages.
With these collages, Bee expresses their fascination with their environment and the ability to reformat their external world into new compositions. This series uses symbols from nature to create two different moods. Glory uses bold sunlight and cascading silk to depict the feeling of basking in success, while Whispers contrarily shows a surreal relationship between intricate and dark forces. Together these collages evoke a sense of surreality that reflects Bee's internal and external realities. Their primary medium is digital animation so the process of making these collages involved some new experimentation and play, but they enjoy the give and take between materials and the artist's intention in all of their work.
Whispers by Bee Mitchell
