Junior Cecilia Gulick has been a busy bee since starting her own Catholic art business, Bee Holy, this past summer.

For two years,  Gulick has been digitally designing mugs, t-shirts, stickers, phone cases, tote bags, and other goods with Catholic images and, of course, bees.

Gulick explained how she chose the bee as her company’s namesake for its symbolism. In Catholicism, the bee, which produces the wax used to make blessed candles, represents the Blessed Virgin Mary who, with her flesh, brings Christ to the world. Likewise, Gulick hopes her Bee Holy products would bring Christ to others. 

“Since my goal is to spread the word of Christ, I’ve really focused my work on things people use every day,” Gulick said. “The goal is still to remind people constantly of God and Our Lady because we’re supposed to be constantly praying; so it’s cool to have a phone case that reminds you of Our Lady, prayer, how to act, and the saints.”

Gulick’s sister, Aubrey ‘23, recalled Cecilia’s deep-rooted love for creating religious art. 

“She has been interested in art for a long, long time,” Aubrey shared. We used to have this friend who would give us old cigar boxes and she would recreate and turn them into mini shrines. She’s always been a really great artist.” 

Cecilia reflected on growing up surrounded by religious art and having the desire to be a Catholic artist. 

“Our parents have always been really good about steeping us in the faith and exposing us to Catholic art, saint stories, and the liturgical year, and I think she draws a lot of her inspiration from her upbringing,” Aubrey said.

While pursuing her biology degree at Hillsdale, Cecilia decided to turn her passion into a business. And as of this past summer, her artwork is now available through her website beeholy.org.

“I started designing things on my iPad and thought ‘this was kind of fun,’” Cecilia recalled. “I would take short little quotes and draw them out in fun ways and I decided to start designing things for notebooks, phone cases, and stickers. And so two years ago I decided I was going to start [Bee Holy].”

Creating the designs for her many products requires much time and dedication. She works with inspiration from other Christian artists and social media, as well as suggestions from her family and friends. 

“She’ll sit in the car for hours and do all the drawings with her finger on her iPad. She’s constantly drawing,” Aubrey said. “It’s been really special being able to help her with the creative process and bringing this idea into fruition.”

Cecilia explained that her product designs are meant to explicitly reflect her Catholic faith. Her friend, Elizabeth Crawford ‘24, who owns some of Cecilia’s art, also commented on the messages conveyed in Bee Holy products.

“The beauty that she sees is the beauty that she wants to pass on,” Crawford ‘24 said. “She does a good job of blending modern and more traditional art together to make something really beautiful.” 

In addition to her website, Cecilia has been planning to sell her work to Catholic bookstores and small businesses so that customers can purchase and see the quality of her products in person. She also hopes to get other artists involved with Bee Holy and contribute different styles of art in the future. 

Cecilia’s artwork is on her website beeholy.org as well as on the business’ Instagram page @beeholyorg.