Guest post: Artwork & Inspiration by @ebw_artwork
"I don't consider myself to be much of a writer, so I often find my thoughts hidden in someone else's words. I've been reading "Refractions" by Makoto Fujimura, so I thought I'd pull a few thoughts from his book that express a bit of the way my mind works when it comes to creating my art."
Today our guest is Beth ( web | instagram )
Beth's work is characterized by bold, gestural brush strokes and minimalist detail. Each canvas, piece of paper or panel is an invitation to engage - to feel, to react, to explore the tension and resolve of each and every element and property used to build it.
"Artists are often found at the margins of society, but they are, like the shepherds, often the first to notice the miracles taking place right in front of us. Since sensationalism, power, and wealth dominate our cultural imaginations, we may not be willing to journey to the ephemeral...to see beauty in the disappearing lines or to see poetry in a drying puddle of water. The world seems to demand of us artist-types that we be able to explain and justify our actions, but often the power and mystery of art and life cannot be explained by normative words."
Refractions by Makoto Fujimura
"Artists often expose the tension between...competing points of view, but they also provide the potential to resolve various perspectives at the same time. ...good art may raise more questions than providing simplistic answers."
Refractions by Makoto Fujimura
"What makes us truly human may not be how fast we are able to accomplish a task but what we experience fully, carefully, and quietly in the process."
Refractions by Makoto Fujimura
"My work is very exploratory. I'm a researcher by nature, and the process of gaining understanding about a material or a tool is very intriguing. As I explore the materials and gain a better understanding of and confidence in the way that they work, the work evolves. I can easily get lost in the "how" of the process. A consistent goal of my work is to marry my experience of the work with my knowledge of it. Tension and resolve, contrast and cohesiveness, freedom and control, are constant themes. I want to push myself, always, to create from an intuitive place - to speak a language with my hands that I'm unable to with my words." Beth
