Featured Artist: Betsy Barnum
MCCC is pleased to announce that Betsy Barnum has her work up through the Fall.
Betsy is a Seattle based artist, who creates artwork that is not only captivating but also deeply layered and full of life. Her current series contains scenes of flight, growth and portraiture that is subtly infused with pattern and soft tones.
Artist Statement:
I use my works on paper to describe my life, expressing my thoughts and emotions about a specific moment or circumstance through my relationships with those I am close to. I build up thin layers of paint, ink and pencil to conceal and reveal images the way emotions and behavior are unconsciously layered to hide or signal something to others. The gesture and composition of the figures in my work are very important, as they are the first indicators of the work's meaning.
I use recurring objects from piece to piece as symbols or metaphors for people and ideas. For example, I often use a typewriter to represent myself, or birds as metaphors for fear and emotion. I use paper as my surface because of its flexibility, smoothness, and capacity for erasure. Like a palimpsest, it shows the progression and history of layers of marks. Like skin it wrinkles and fights back when worked on, asserting its personality into the painting or drawing. Like journal pages, my work is an ongoing narrative, each piece chronologically linked to the others. Each gesture, color, layer, and object is significant, and each work interacts with the others to establish meaning through a repetition of these elements.
Betsy Barnum has an M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute and is an artist, designer and maker of things. You can't help but love her. Come by and see her work for yourself!
We're open 6:30-6PM Daily!
Betsy is a Seattle based artist, who creates artwork that is not only captivating but also deeply layered and full of life. Her current series contains scenes of flight, growth and portraiture that is subtly infused with pattern and soft tones.
Artist Statement:
I use my works on paper to describe my life, expressing my thoughts and emotions about a specific moment or circumstance through my relationships with those I am close to. I build up thin layers of paint, ink and pencil to conceal and reveal images the way emotions and behavior are unconsciously layered to hide or signal something to others. The gesture and composition of the figures in my work are very important, as they are the first indicators of the work's meaning.
I use recurring objects from piece to piece as symbols or metaphors for people and ideas. For example, I often use a typewriter to represent myself, or birds as metaphors for fear and emotion. I use paper as my surface because of its flexibility, smoothness, and capacity for erasure. Like a palimpsest, it shows the progression and history of layers of marks. Like skin it wrinkles and fights back when worked on, asserting its personality into the painting or drawing. Like journal pages, my work is an ongoing narrative, each piece chronologically linked to the others. Each gesture, color, layer, and object is significant, and each work interacts with the others to establish meaning through a repetition of these elements.
Betsy Barnum has an M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute and is an artist, designer and maker of things. You can't help but love her. Come by and see her work for yourself!
We're open 6:30-6PM Daily!
posted by Sumire Design at
10:27 AM
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