Description
“UTAH: The Beehive vs. Bears Ears” (acrylic paint, oil/wax crayon, and pencil on heavy watercolor paper) explores the conflict among industry, environmental preservation, tourism, and Indigenous sovereignty in Utah. The beehive—Utah’s emblem of labor, community, and industry—contrasts with Bears Ears, a sacred ancestral landscape protected as a national monument through the advocacy of the Hopi, Navajo, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Indian, and Zuni tribes. The monument’s reduction in 2017 and restoration in 2021 reveal competing visions for public land, while the historic co-management agreement recognizes the essential role of Tribal knowledge and stewardship. Bees crawling across the composition symbolize Utah’s industry and collective labor, but also the potentially damaging pressure of tourism and development on fragile ecosystems, cultural sites, and sacred lands.
