About
Beth is an artist and art therapist from the UK, having lived in the Southwest USA as well as various places in the UK. Beth completed her BA degree in Creative Arts at Sion Hill in Bath and her Masters in Art Psychotherapy at Goldsmiths College in London. Her work centers around nature, exploring themes of animal symbolism, folklore and interconnectivity. The intent of her artwork is to evoke her responses of love, empathy and immersion in relation to nature. In her recent series, through a process similar to macro photography, her large-scale macro nature embroideries explore and amplify details that would usually be microscopic and mostly invisible to the human eye so that all the subtle changes, fluctuations in color and texture are brought forward and made accessible. Beth hopes to connect people with the diversity, survival, resilience and adaptability that nature teaches us, especially in current turbulent climates where the balance is so vulnerable. Driven by a need to connect viewers more closely to nature as an essential part of ourselves, Beth delves into personal journies in connection to symbolism from the natural world.
'I am driven by being able to connect with a creature on a deeper level while paying so much attention to each subtle change of color, texture or pattern in their feathers, fur or wings. When I’m working on the larger embroideries I’m absorbed in stitching for several days in a row, drawing out all the details. While I work, I’m reminded of each part of the pattern working together within the embroidery and the interdependency between parts of a whole. As the devastating impact that we have on nature through our daily habits, such as carbon emissions, harmful chemical products, taking over natural spaces and the wider impact on industrial levels becomes more visible, I hope to capture the importance, interconnectivity and beauty of nature. Art is so powerful for sharing messages in an embodied way. I feel that the tactile form of embroidery adds to this sense of connection, attention and presence and invites us to be part of the natural world more attentively and closely.
In her BBC interview in April 1937, Virginia Woolf speaks about words being “full of echoes, of memories, of associations – naturally…they have been out and about, on people’s lips, in their houses, in the streets, in the fields, for so many centuries…they are so stored with meanings, with memories...” (Woolf,1937).
In a similar way to words, animals and nature are infused with local, personal and collective meanings that have developed over thousands of years, sometimes so buried within historical and cultural knowing that some seem to arrive from a mysterious, felt place, never completely new. So many animals have crawled, prowled, padded and galloped through stories, folk tales, personal accounts and memories that they carry a weight of meaning often before we have even encountered them in reality. Many of us have become increasingly distant from nature and animals and in areas around the world the wilderness that has provided safe harbor for nature and animals outside of the domestic sphere is gradually diminishing along with wildlife. Through my work I hope to hold onto the discourse of us belonging as part of nature rather than as 'other' to it.'
'I am driven by being able to connect with a creature on a deeper level while paying so much attention to each subtle change of color, texture or pattern in their feathers, fur or wings. When I’m working on the larger embroideries I’m absorbed in stitching for several days in a row, drawing out all the details. While I work, I’m reminded of each part of the pattern working together within the embroidery and the interdependency between parts of a whole. As the devastating impact that we have on nature through our daily habits, such as carbon emissions, harmful chemical products, taking over natural spaces and the wider impact on industrial levels becomes more visible, I hope to capture the importance, interconnectivity and beauty of nature. Art is so powerful for sharing messages in an embodied way. I feel that the tactile form of embroidery adds to this sense of connection, attention and presence and invites us to be part of the natural world more attentively and closely.
In her BBC interview in April 1937, Virginia Woolf speaks about words being “full of echoes, of memories, of associations – naturally…they have been out and about, on people’s lips, in their houses, in the streets, in the fields, for so many centuries…they are so stored with meanings, with memories...” (Woolf,1937).
In a similar way to words, animals and nature are infused with local, personal and collective meanings that have developed over thousands of years, sometimes so buried within historical and cultural knowing that some seem to arrive from a mysterious, felt place, never completely new. So many animals have crawled, prowled, padded and galloped through stories, folk tales, personal accounts and memories that they carry a weight of meaning often before we have even encountered them in reality. Many of us have become increasingly distant from nature and animals and in areas around the world the wilderness that has provided safe harbor for nature and animals outside of the domestic sphere is gradually diminishing along with wildlife. Through my work I hope to hold onto the discourse of us belonging as part of nature rather than as 'other' to it.'