Must It Bee? Original collage on canvas

Part of The Last Quartets art series, The Dare depicts my vision of the fourth movement of Beethoven's last string quartet: opus 135 in F. This movement is titled, "The Difficult Resolution." We get no hint at what this difficult resolution is, just a tantalizing and universal clue. The opening motif of the finale is written out with the question, "must it be?" written beneath it, followed by the second motif written out with an answer, "it must be!" What "it" is is anyone's guess, and so I leave it open in this collage as well.

My vision for the four collages that make up this Beethoven quartet is that bees represent artists and squirrels represent their fans. Are the squirrels giving the bees their acorn house to atone for stealing their honey in the first collage, or are they merely handing over their key to allow the bees to redecorate? Whatever's happening, it appears to be a difficult resolution, but it must bee!

This canvas measures 20x20 inches with a 3/4 inch profile with sides painted in metallic gold acrylic. All patterns used in this collage were designed by me and are glued together with my original colored pencil drawings. Comes ready to hang.

You can also find a print of this piece here.