A Tack Bee 

Scott Fraser created ‘A Tack Bee’ with oil on linen. Here we have hyperrealism, so illusionistic that you may miss the subtle brushwork. Yet it is precisely the artist's chosen medium that gives the work its conceptual complexity. Fraser has painted three commonplace objects, each associated with different kinds of labor. The humble wooden clothespin is mass-produced, used for a rote domestic task. The metal push-pin, stuck through the clothespin, and supporting the bee, also speaks to mass manufacturing. Its form is purely utilitarian, even brutal. The bee, of course, is a wonder of nature, but is also a worker, a metaphor for industriousness. The great skill involved in rendering these elements is not unlike the labor of the bee, in its painstaking dedication. Fraser’s sensitivity to material transforms the everyday into something remarkable. The painting invites us to consider the value of labor, and challenges conventional ideas about artistic value, blurring the lines between craft and fine art.