The Bee Collector is set in a time in childhood before screens filled every spare moment. Back then, children were allowed to be bored, and boredom was considered a good thing. Parents didn’t worry about it. Long summer days were spent inventing ways to pass the time, and bee collecting was one such pastime. Hours might be spent searching for a bee and gently coaxing it into a clean, washed-out jam jar, lined with flower petals to make the tiny captive feel at home. To an eight year old, this seemed perfectly reasonable.

Eventually the moment would come when it was time to go home, and you would sit wondering what to do with the bee. Would it survive until morning? In the end, you would let it go, reassured that it was free again, at least until the next day’s adventure. The wallpapered background reflects those quiet moments spent alone with the bee. In the 1980s, wallpaper was everywhere; the child might be safe at home, but the bee, for a while at least, remained trapped.