Bethann Parker
“Working on many pieces allows me to move freely in an intuitive state, both in emotion and thought. I am mapping and interweaving complex feelings and memories, harnessing relationships, and investigating the weblike thread that connects them all.”
- Bethann Parker
Retrograde, 12″ x 16″, Earth Pigment, Oil And Rabbit Skin Glue On Canvas
Gross McCleaf is thrilled to present, Interwoven, Bethann Parker’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. This collection features over 40 paintings that showcase Parker’s signature use of experimental textures and layered narratives. The works speak to Parker’s rich knowledge of American folk and modernist forms, connecting the paintings to spiritually influenced artists such as Hilma af Klint and Charles Burchfield, and strongly resonate with traditional ephemera and handcrafted heirlooms.
The surfaces of Parker’s paintings are rich, dynamic, and complex. She enjoys harvesting materials from her local environment and produces her own charcoal sticks, rabbit and venison glues for sizing, and pigments, from scratch. She also incorporates lesser-known products such as shellac, marble dust and distemper into her works, explaining, “Materials have feelings and behave in certain ways. The fluidity of distemper says something very different than a beefed-up marble oil stroke; natural gesso has a sinking absorbency of weight compared to the delicate ‘topholding’ of linen.” Parker poetically combines these tactile topographies with a broad variety of pictographs, granting endless opportunities to portray multi-faceted narratives.
Valley Of Wax, 18″ x 22″, Earth Pigment, Oil And Shellac On Panel
Parker masterfully weaves together an assortment of disparate symbolism in her works. Angels, trees, animals, windows, earthly elements, and water in all its forms, are stitched together in thoughtful arrangements, and meticulously applied to great effect. Often appearing as the landscape, subtly indicated forms can serve dual functions. In the bistable imagery of Woven Flight, an exaltation of larks swoops into a sparsely indicated, sunny sky while the face of a mammalian creature emerges – perhaps a “sky cat” focused on the cluster of delicious prey.
In many works, symmetrical and typically animated compositions lend themselves to ambiguous interpretation. The ledge waterfall in Mountain can be viewed as a decorated altar, or a stage that is about to welcome a special visitor. The dashed, patterned brushstrokes applied to Opening and Reverence convey potent, kinetic movement, while the abstract ideographs in Clearing, and Retrograde offer tacit messages for the viewer to decrypt. Veil and Valley of Wax hint at microscopic, biological cross sections. Thick strands of paint regularly emulate embroidery on areas of otherwise exposed substrates of linen, canvas, or panel, articulating rain, branches, energetic vibrations, and ether.
While references to early American Modernist and Transcendentalist values, Christian theology, feminism, and the occult are interwoven throughout Parker’s works, her own alchemy remains deeply rooted in her spirituality and surroundings. Her creative process is a reverential and intimate journey, one where she regularly invites her intuition, impulses, convictions, and rebelliousness to guide and spark engagement with her paintings. Parker courts magic and looks to birth, death, and the natural world as fertile ground where the discovery of profound meaning is possible. Her paintings seemingly question what is important, and what remains, at the very core of all existence. It is a space where intentional inquiry, patience, surrender, and resurrection can take form. She offers a glimpse of life-giving forces, eternal energies, and invites us to share in her own visual poetry of consciousness.
Bethann Parker has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions including Art at King Oaks in Newtown, Pennsylvania; Anna Zorina Gallery in a virtual exhibition; and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She has received prestigious awards such as the Kittredge Fund, the Freeman’s Exhibition award, Louis S. Fine Purchase Prize and the Richard C. Von Hess Memorial Travel Scholarship for European travel. Her work is in the collection of the Fellowship of PAFA, the Lee Foundation and the Louise S. Fine Collection in addition to private collections across the mid-Atlantic region. Her works have been featured in the New York Times and Voice of America. Parker is represented by Gross McCleaf Gallery and lives on a homestead in the mountains of northeast Appalachia. Her studio is in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Image Right: Storehouse, 8″ x 10″, Oil On Canvas
Mountain, 40″ x 40″, Earth Pigment, Oil And Rabbit Skin Glue On Canvas
~Exhibition Preview~
May 2 - 23, 2024
Opening Reception: May 4, 1 - 4 pm
