Bumblebee TV

Description

Oil and acrylic on canvas

Dimensions: 24 x 24

Beneath the expressive strokes is a variation of Archimedes’ Square — the world’s oldest documented brain teaser puzzle. Developed by famous Greek mathematician Archimedes, around 250 BC., the puzzle is divided into 14 wood polygons, of various sizes and shapes which when assembled form a square. Archimedes’ riddle was thus: ‘how many different arrangements are possible?’ A mathematician named Bill Cutler at Cornell University solved it. The answer is 17,152 solutions, with 536 being truly unique. I created a Stomachion as a scaffolding and then added the abstraction. A metaphor with many meanings. As always, most of my recent work is intended to be hanged from any direction, giving the eye new perspective and eight new paintings. — RK

I will create signed Giclees upon request only. The number being limited to 17, as a nod to Mr. Archimedes. Posters are available here .

CURRENTLY ON EXHIBIT

PS. The name Bumblebee TV comes from how I imagine bees see the world in general and flower gardens in particular. Plus, what the shows would look like that bees like to binge watch on Netflix. Here is a poem that I wrote about a bee a long time ago:

FIREBALLS

Some townsfolk talk and some do balk
About the legend of a man nearly hidden.
At least one word they all have heard
Of Fireballs McFee McFidden.

Betwixt his legs that hung like eggs
Were balls of steely fire!
“Why,” they say, “If they swing your way
You’ll ignite a funeral’s pyre!”

One fine day Fireballs was making his way
Across the fruited plain.
When on his knee landed a bee
That buzzed like stinging rain.

A-feared to move or even to groove
His feet stopped dead in their tracks.
And with bug-eyes and mournful sighs,
Fireballs looked down at his slacks.

And there sat the bee.

Now everyone knows, just as wind blows
That Fireballs was allergic to bees.
And to that fellow of black and yellow
Loosed a moan that shook the trees.

But the bee just buzzed and just because
It wanted to see him quake.
So “bee” says he, “Get off my knee,
Or your friends ’ll be attending a wake!”

But the bee did not move.

And with some dread that he might soon be dead
Fireballs let fly a hairy hand.
But the bee just swerved, albeit unnerved,
And made fiery, our fiery man.

Not to be out-done by a striped one,
Fireballs hollered and shook.
He unzipped his pants and danced a dance,
Hoping the bee to cook.

But the buzzing bee, flew to flee
The blazing death that came
From inside the pants of the man from Yantz,
Who claimed Fireballs as his name.

And in his rear the bee did tear
A gaping, fleshy wound.
Felling the man who danced on the sand
Near the crescent bay of Tycoons.

When Fireballs fell he was madder than hell,
And burst the ground into flames.
Curse the luck, he knew he’d been struck
Death of a legend’s a shame.

And the fire roared and the flames soared
And Fireballs yelled and yelled.
But no one heard a single word,
‘Cept the bee he nearly felled.

Fireballs cursed and cried but before he died
He thought of that awful thing
That alit on his knee in the valley
Where the bluebirds like to sing.

The tale now told to young by old
Don’t forget what you’ve been given.
So sally north and carry forth
“The legend of Fireballs McFee McFidden.”