Peripheral
eries
agazine
Special Edition
Contemporary Art
Peripheral ARTeries meets
Elizabeth McCoy Lives and works in Berkeley, California, USA Beth of Lenabethe Media & Design has spent the last 35 years exploring the disparate elements of design through various media and techniques. These have included painting, printmaking, collage, paper, photography, fabric, glass, ceramics, beads, sculpture, wood, food, and anything else that can be used or tried. Her work has been shown both nationally and internationally. An avid photographer and traveler, textures, patterns and images from around the world are often a part of Beth’s creative process. Beth came to art quite naturally as a child and was constantly doing some sort of project in her room or at an art class. She never played with her doll house but rather constantly redesigned the walls and furniture arrangements. She frequently got art supplies as gifts and used them up quickly. Her room at home was like an art studio; there was always something in process in there. She was allowed to spread out and keep projects going for as long as she wanted. She was very lucky in that no one ever told her to clean up or put things away, so she was able to work and rework things until she was done with them, or they were done with her (which is closer to what typically happens). In middle and high school she designed and sold beaded jewelry at craft fairs and a local Berkeley shop called the “Artifactory”. Studying design in college was an obvious fit. While studying architecture and design in New York City at Barnard College, the basic design courses always started with the elements of design and the advanced ones always used those basic elements as a frame of reference. Every time Beth has explored a new medium or technique, she has always started with the basic elements of design as a way of exercising her design muscles in a new creative direction. It’s like warming up before you exercise. For Beth, art has often created an escape from the world, but also, as often, a vehicle for exploring feelings about the vast and sorrowful issues that plague the world. Beth served as a Peace Corps volunteer and came back frankly appalled at the amount of garbage we generate in the US. Beth has sought to incorporate junk yard reusables and everyday recyclables in her artwork, sometimes through a photograph of the objects or the things themselves. She has found using junk and thrift finds an escape from and a temporal solution to the vast throw away culture around her. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator
of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training and you studied Architecture and Design in New York City at Barnard College: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? In particular, how does the relationship between your cultural substratum due to your experience as a Peace
peripheral.arteries@europe.com
Hello Beth and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic and we would start this interview with a couple
SPECIAL ISSUE
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