A Norfolk artist has unveiled his newest sculpture to highlight the precarious plight of Britain’s bees.
Created by Dan Meek, from South Lopham, A Fine Balance is now on permanent display at the University of Birmingham’s Winterbourne Gardens.
Mr Meek, who specialises in stone carving and letter cutting, was inspired by Einstein’s quotation: “If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years to live.”
The sculpture, suitably carved in St Bees sandstone, has been designed as a warning to mankind as Britain’s bee numbers continue to decline.
He said: “The fragility of the current balance was also the reason I inserted the quote from horticulturist writer Elizabeth Lawrence.
“It says: ‘The hum of the bee is the voice of the garden’. This sums things up perfectly.”
Mr Meek trained as a stonemason, and architectural stone carver in Bath, qualifying in 1993.
In 2006, he started working for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which restores and conserves monuments from both world wars across the British Isles.
After being awarded a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust scholarship in 2009, he received tuition from Norfolk stone carver and letter cutter Teucer Wilson, who he still works for today
Mr Meek’s newest piece won a competition organised by Suffolk’s Lettering Arts Trust, of which he is a member.
Lee Hale, head of Winterbourne Gardens, said: “There’s more to the sculpture than stone.
“Not only does it highlight the plight of the bees and the changes they face from habitat loss and pesticide use, it also celebrates the relationship between them and us.”
