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© Artist Gina Jrel - May, 2004
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Sphexophobia
Medium:
Acrylic on Board
Dimensions:
18"w x 11"h
Original available for purchase:
Private Collection / Salt Lake City, Utah
Available in Giclee:
No
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About the Painting:
Sphexophobia was a student assignment I did while at the Kansas City Art Institute. The project was to create a piece based
on a phobia.
Since early childhood, I have had a profound and phobic fear of bees. All bees. Wasps, hornets, bumble bees, anything
that looks like, or sounds like, a bee. If I see a bee, I will get up and move. If one gets too close to me, I will involuntarily
shriek and run like an absolute idiot (which my friends will attest to with a laugh!) So my choice of phobias was obvious.
It had to be bees.
The term "Sphexophobia" means fear of wasps. When I was a little girl, I used to come home from school to find
I could not get in the front door of the house, due to a wasps nest conveniently located above the front door. I would sit
outside waiting for the opportunity to run past the wasps nest and get inside before they could "get me."
This painting is a kind of funny, humorous spoof on my life-long fear. I wanted something that conveyed the seriousness
of the phobia, but also portrayed how silly and humorous it is too.
I still have a fear of bees, and have absolutely no desire to ever face or overcome that fear. It is a phobia I would
rather live with than face!
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