Bethany Czarnecki
© Bethany Czarnecki
Female Topography IV
Bethany Czarnecki
“Femininity, sensuality, motherhood—these are all topics I can speak to and defend.”
– Bethany Czarnecki
I had been following Bethany Czarnecki for a number of months when her DM came through. Sharing that her first solo exhibit would be opening soon at Massey Klein Gallery, Bethany asked if I might be interested in learning more. My answer was an immediate yes.
Thoughtful, skilled, and engaging, I have so enjoyed getting to know Bethany over the summer. To my delight, life seems to remind me of her work everywhere now. This is especially true as I enjoy Mother Nature’s impeccable color combinations and the complex overlap of many of Her creations. Brilliantly depicting the female topography, encompassing much more than just our physical form, Bethany’s atmospheric dreamscapes acknowledge our strength and our beauty… our need for autonomy and connection.
Elizabeth Mathis Cheatham: As a self-taught artist, you did not focus on your painting from the beginning. Can you tell us a bit about the path that brought you to your art?
Bethany Czarnecki: As a child I was always exposed to the arts as a spectator, whether it be through museums, ballet, opera, or musical theatre. At a noticeably young age, I just loved it. I loved going to the Met and Guggenheim. Then going to college in New York City too— I went to Barnard, and although I did not study art, I was always walking through Chelsea, looking at galleries. There was so much at my disposal in NYC. Art was always in the periphery of my life, and something I turned to for inspiration or comfort. I always found too, for me viewing works in galleries or museums was something I could do independently from others. Throughout young adulthood, if I needed time to myself, I would walk through MOMA, the Met, or just walk into galleries in Chelsea to be inspired…to me, viewing art is such a sensory experience, feeling the energy of the artists – forcing me to be present and reflective at the same time. So, I think all those feelings were embedded within me from a young age and continued to evolve through young adulthood. I carried on through life working in finance until the birth of my first child, and then once I was home with my daughter full time, I began reflecting more—I had a whole new set of emotions and feelings after the birth of my first child.
EMC: Yes—me too!
Photo: Peter Koloff. © Bethany Czarnecki
BC: I felt a bit of a void—not necessarily a loss of identity, but a transition of identity where the person who I was before giving birth is not the person I am now, and I spent a lot of time trying to understand how I could meld both of those personalities and push myself to evolve. I threw myself into motherhood; however, I continued to struggle with the individual identity part for some time, and then I had another baby and the days were all about my children. It was when I was pregnant with my third that I had this overwhelming urge to start painting. I could not control it; it was completely compulsory and all consuming. It came out of left field—an awakening of sorts. I had a voracious desire to paint—when I tell you voracious, I was painting all the time.
EMC: Did you have any supplies in your house, or was it something you had to go out…?
BC: I had little supplies. It was a process navigating the art supply store, getting reacquainted with paints, tools, etc. I would even occasionally use household tools such as brooms, spatulas, etc. Although I painted as a child and in college, it was a hobby. Painting was always on the periphery of my life, something I would turn to—whether as a spectator or a participant, it was something I turned to for comfort and to work through my feelings somehow. After buying materials, I carved out a daily practice of painting—teaching myself to paint with oils, without any formal training—just experimentation. It was at that time I had a burning sensation to create work. Once my third child was born, it really pushed through and continued where my other two were in school full time and he was home with me, so he would be right by my side, whether it was in a Baby Bjorn or a little seat. I just painted and painted and painted and painted. It was my daily practice. I dabble in meditation, so for me it was a form of meditation. I applied myself every day for years, and I still do. I would say as a self-taught painter, it is really rooted for me in the ritual of expression and an element of spirituality. I believe in that, and I do feel that part of my calling to paint is spiritual. Oftentimes when I paint, I get lost in that feeling when I am in the studio and it is almost like I am just a vessel…as if something is moving through me. I meditate on the use of color and the sensuality of the line; there is a strong desire for the work to be authentic. Femininity, sensuality, motherhood—these are all topics I can speak to and defend. I hope it is evident in my work. I think the dialogue around the paintings touch on my internal processing of my role as a woman and being a sensual figure, maybe provocative, but also being a life-giver and a mother, and what that requires of me physically to give birth, and to emotionally and mentally show up every day for my children, and then also for my husband and for myself. I look forward to pushing that conversation forward and really examining relationships of people and relationships of identity and how we look at ourselves. My hope is that the paintings are reflective in nature—they are for me.
EMC: It’s interesting; I read the article that you did last week or this week, I guess. The days are…
BC: That is okay. It is summer; that is a good thing.
EMC: They paraphrased you, saying you don’t separate your femininity and your motherhood from your painting.
BC: Yes.
© Bethany Czarnecki
Nascence
Bethany Czarnecki
“We exist in a time where women need to be heard, and feel safe expressing that beauty and sensuality does not compromise strength or power.”
– Bethany Czarnecki
EMC: I really loved that. You seem to be someone who has a found a nice balance with honoring your art and the other aspects of your life. Any advice…anything you have learned along the way that you want to share?
BC: Thank you for the complement. I have not mastered the balance yet, but I try. Reverting to the remark about not separating femininity and motherhood from my work… I look at myself wholly—as one being, and how the various facets of my character feed off one another to comprise my identity, if that makes sense? In relation to the article, I believe the question came up in paralleling my work to Georgia O’Keeffe—where O’Keeffe shied away from embracing the sexuality in her flower paintings and my work where I embrace it. I often think about the historical context of female artists where there were so many prolific female artists producing extremely engaging work but creating it under the auspice of men. For me, I am so grateful to be able to embrace my own femininity and voice—living in a place and time where female voices are really heard and amplified. We exist in a time where women need to be heard, and feel safe expressing that beauty and sensuality does not compromise strength or power. Recognizing that those two things can co-habitate with one another. They can be co-mingled. To me, that is paramount and necessary for my own artistic voice. The work of the female voice is never done.
Regarding the work/life balance—I have learned to embrace chaos and be flexible! My studio is in my home; that is the only way I can be productive. I am very diligent about creating time to paint. But it also comes down to respect. My children are surprisingly good about respecting that painting is important to me and respecting my time in the studio. I think, like anything in life, if there’s respect for something, it gives you breathing room to create and allow for something to really burgeon. If you feel supported, then you can forge a path. I would not be able to do what I do without my children and my husband standing behind me, because I work in my home. Most of the time, my kids are in the studio with me, creating. Especially during summer, you’ll find me every once in a while sneaking a photo of my children in the studio with me—my daughter will often be reading or knitting or painting and my older son will be on his iPad or playing a video game and my youngest son will be painting and just making us laugh. He is the most engaged in my process probably because he has logged the most hours with me in the studio...
EMC: I don’t know if you’ve seen—it’s one of my favorite pictures—the Ruth Asawa photo of her creating in her living room with four of her six children around her, the youngest one’s diaper-less with a bottle. It was very impressive.
BC: Yes! Incredible! …women have this uncanny ability to multitask. For the pieces in the show that is currently up at Massey Klein, all the work was created during quarantine. I had started work for the show before the pandemic, but found I was very disconnected from all the prior work; I could not find my rhythm with it. So, I dove in and I created all new work. Because we were isolating, my children were/are home 24/7. During April, May, and part of June, I was homeschooling them alongside of making work for that show. In a way—for me, it was a very utopian existence to all be home and be together and have that quiet time. It was chaotic and emotional, very emotional, because there was a lot of unknown and there still is and a lot of fear, but it was also loving and felt very peaceful because we were all together—and we were existing in a very safe environment together and forced to be quiet and reflect.
Isolation provided me a block of uninterrupted time to work, and the kids were by my side every step of the way. Sometimes I find when the children are out of the home at school and activities, I have less time to paint because I am constantly running on their schedule. It’s a little bit of a give-and-take and the biggest take-away is to be structured but flexible—I know— an oxymoron of sorts, but I structure the time and routine and then do not beat myself up if there are interruptions or a change of plans (which happens often with three kids under the age of 10 at home). Having the presence of the children within the studio space provides endless inspiration for my work—the paintings in enoument were very much driven by my emotions around being a mother and being a woman. That work really forced me to take a critical look through the lens of motherhood and its effects emotionally and physically—it is a multi-layered perspective that I continue to peel back through my paintings.
EMC: This seems like the perfect time to speak about your exhibit. If I am correct, it was your first solo exhibit.
BC: Yes. You are correct!
EMC: You’ve shared with us that you had a plan for the exhibit, and then all of a sudden, the art no longer felt like what you wanted to share.
BC: Yes. It felt less authentic to the time.
© Bethany Czarnecki
Pollination
Bethany Czarnecki
EMC: Talk to us a bit more about the inspiration behind the new body of work you created, about the title of the show, and what it was like to put together your first solo exhibit.
BC: Quarantine and isolation for me felt stifling at times: the fear, the unknown, a lot of melancholy that was swirling around—I found I was craving space and air. I felt almost physically claustrophobic in a way. The body of work I had started on for the show felt very physically heavy to me due to the fabrics I was using. I was not connecting, and I needed an outlet to just be lighter and freer. I started to reflect on myself and my role, and how I could be better served as a mother. We’ve all gone through personal challenges, but to go through something so historical and fear-based, but to feel the need to lead a life and be very optimistic and very even-keeled for my children to make them feel safe and loved—I really started to go inward and tap into those feelings. So, I started painting a whole new body of work. I was craving vibrancy and color. I wanted to feel energized and hopeful. The desire to create work that served as a reminder of the power of life and a reckoning of beauty of sorts, held a heavy weight with me while creating the work. The impetus was to paint atmospheric dreamscapes honoring femininity and life while striving to create something beautiful to remember. There is a deeply rooted power to beauty, and I yearned to tap into that. How does beauty make us feel? Does it bring hope and strength, and will it bring us joy?
EMC: I may have already told you this when we talked previously, but my favorite quote is by John Keats: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” It took my whole pregnancy and the first three days of son’s life to get my husband on board, but we named our second son Keats after my love of beauty and that quote.
BC: Beauty has power, for all of us. It is very honest. It can be—in our culture and our society, a lot of us can be misguided by the stigma beauty carries and what we think it symbolizes—especially regarding women. Looking at it purely, I think beauty is sensory and can be digested and felt in various ways. I try to savor all forms of it and tap into those emotions when I can. In any event, that to me at the time, especially during isolation, because we were so inward focused, we were home and separated from friends, colleagues and extended family and fearful to be in the presence of others — I really wanted to tap into all of the emotions and desires and create this atmospheric outlet of beauty that was symbolic to women. For me, the exercise of making these paintings was about reminding myself that beauty still exists and is powerful—forcing reflection for myself and for others.
With the title—The show had been scheduled over a year in advance. Upon the onset of COVID, I really didn’t know what the gallery was going to decide as far as if the show was going to go on, if the gallery was going to be open, if people would be able to interact with the work in person, if they’d only see it online… it was all an unknown, and I was thinking about what the world is going to look like when we survive this. If we can survive this and get it under control—or are we not? Is this our new “normal”? If you can call it that, really. I was thinking, ‘What does this mean for viewing art?’ I miss viewing work in person.
EMC: Me too!
BC: So much of what I call upon as not just an artist but as a human being, I pull from seeing work in person. So much of how I feel and my views on certain things, whether they be personal or political—it is all within the context of seeing art in person. How is that—what is that going to be like? When I name pieces and I name work, I try to find words that spark emotion where you are tapping into something. Because the works are very atmospheric and experiential, a lot of the work you do not know if you are inside of it, underneath it, above it. It is sort of voyeuristic to a degree, and there is a lot of dimensionality even on a two-dimensional plane, the line work and the color choices really give it an oscillating dimensional quality. It was important to me to entitle a show around that emotional feeling. When I stumbled upon the word énouement it hit me immediately that is was the perfect title for the show. The definition was unanimous with my mindset while I was painting every painting! It’s the notion, the bittersweet notion of arriving in the future and not being able to tell your present self the outcome. I thought it was a very poetic word and very fitting for the work. Then the notion was just, wow. This is completely spot-on to have a show in the middle of this COVID crisis with so much unrest in the world, not just health-wise but politically, socially. Our world is currently shifting in various facets that we all are yearning to know what the future holds, and we all wish we could find out today. To me, the meaning, it was the combination of it being such a poetic word itself and a beautiful notion of that kind of consciousness. The paintings very much toggle between future, present, and past. Illusionistic dreamscapes in a sense.
EMC: It’s a beautiful word. I enjoyed so many pieces from the show, but Pollination won my heart. There is such a sensuality to it and a beauty that is mesmerizing. I would love to know more about the piece.
BC: I painted that painting in April. It was right when spring was turning. The birds began chirping and flowers were budding. We were six weeks into isolation, where you were faced with your children and your family under one roof every day, and kind of examining the impetus of all of that. My work is rooted in sensuality, but Pollination is also a rebirth. The origin of where it all came from. The title came about from that duality of spring and season, but also birth and sexuality—the act of pollinating, so it was an all-encompassing feeling to create the work and to title it.
I am really drawn to voluminous shapes of color and the relationship between layering different hues and colors. In Pollination, I was a little bit freer with the gesture, I think—more so than in prior works, largely because I was hungry to connect with people. I was painting these in a time of isolation where I wasn’t connecting in person, and I felt this need to be more gestural as my way of connecting to the work and to people who would hopefully view the work, that they could see it was the brush, the movement of a hand, that there was a little bit of spontaneity in the work and emotion. A lot of times, so much of my work I paint so physically slow. The brush moves very slowly, because I really want the planes to be smooth and the canvases to be smooth and the colors too, just getting the right amount of luminosity and variation and moving through that. It was really liberating to be freer with the brushstrokes a bit. On the bottom left part of that painting, you will see that there is more gesture there. It was my way of wanting to be looser and not feel so stifled and connect.
It is funny because that painting was a very quick painting for me, in the sense that it conceptually came together quite quickly. Sometimes paintings take a long time compositionally; sometimes I am stuck. For instance, I have one work right now in my studio that I know it is not finished, but I do not know what to do next. It takes some time to figure out. The relationship between myself and the canvases is sort of a give-and-take. In some, the conversation, the dialogue moves quite rapidly and in others, they are sticky. They take time. That painting was very rapid.
Photo: Peter Koloff. © Bethany Czarnecki
EMC: You speak about your practice being meditative, and this idea in a way—perhaps there’s a better word than this—but almost feeling like there’s this channeling of inspiration that comes through you. Do you have an idea when you’re starting a painting of what it’s going to look like, or does it take form on its own once you put paint to canvas or paint to paper?
BC: Sometimes—I always have an idea of what I think the work will look like. I always have a jumping-off point of ‘this is what I hope it looks like in the end’—It never winds up. You never get there. There are too many twists and turns. I largely work directly on the canvases. Lately, over the past four or five months, I have been doing more works on paper, largely because just being home so much they were faster, so I could work through ideas quickly. But I am an oil painter, so that takes time—even doing oil work on paper. I think some of the paintings are inspired by smaller works on paper. That is not necessarily my system; I do not always do that. Some paintings—some works on paper translate better on paper, I find, just because of the medium and how paper grabs the paint versus the canvas. Most of the time I approach the canvas with an idea or a feeling, whether it be some reaction to something—usually very rooted in femininity or a memory or a fantasy or somewhere in between. Then I just go for it. I will maybe sketch out roughly the composition sometimes; sometimes I will not. I very often will start on the edges of a painting and work inward. I do love the edges of paintings. For me, I just love framing the work and giving a voyeuristic impression.
EMC: This moving inwards and through.
BC: Yes. So, a lot of times my edges of work are more complex or layered than the center of the work. I am excited because soon I’m hoping to maybe dabble in circular or oval canvases, trying to try to push that part of the work and see how changing the shape of the frame changes the perspective of the painting. The color choice in the work is improvisational, so as the dialogue between me and the painting begins, the colors choices develop. I also cannot stand wasting paint, so oftentimes if I am working on one painting and I have extra oil paint, I will slap it on another painting and then build upon that layer. You will find a lot of the work is congruent in hues and tones, largely because I cannot stand to waste paint.
EMC: It gives this really nice conversation between the pieces, though.
BC: Yes, that is true. It is a conversation. I will put a color down and I will see how I react to that or how it looks, and that will inform my next color choice. Depending on how you layer the colors, that gives you certain vibrancy – they emit emotions – so much of painting is action and reaction. So it’s very much important what color comes underneath the color I lay on top, especially because now I’m playing with having sheer overlays with the paint so you can kind of see what’s behind it, highlighting a varied perspective. There is some nuance to it, but truly one decision informs the next and the next and the next. With the composition of the work or the message, that is a bit premeditated, but the gesture and the color and the texture, that comes as I go.
EMC: What do you see in the future for you?
BC: In the future… I am interested in expanding the narrative of the female form and really diving into it. Part of me wants to dabble in more proactive or provocative work. With my paintings I like to play with the notion of female sexuality, but also create work that can be interpreted as landscape. The paintings do kind of toggle between figurative abstraction and landscape. It’s kind of where I came up with the notion of female topography because topography is a physical plane, but I have interpreted it as the topography of the female identity, the feminine mind, body, emotions.
EMC: How do you begin to define it in its own self vs as it relates to a much more linear, male-oriented world?
BC: Yes. In the works, too, there is meaning to that. They are all different shapes and they are all different colors. There is no one specific way to be and I think that as women, that is a beautiful thing. We can wear many different hats. It is a powerful notion—just the fact that we can give birth physically is…
EMC: Pretty amazing!
BC: One hundred percent! There is a lot to that; there is a lot embedded within us. That is where I draw my inspiration. I still have so much to learn and I continue to read and question. If I can create work that is authentic and sparks conversation around women while being beautiful and edgy at the same time, I feel I am making progress… ‘Okay, that may be something.’