Collection: Bethany Mabee

 After graduation from college I focused more on building my career, gradually exploring my artwork on the side. After managing sales at a textile manufacturer, I had a long stint at an architecture firm in Chicago as their Furniture Procurement Director. I still work in furniture procurement as a remote consultant, but my art has taken a front seat. My consulting work feeds my analytical brain with order and predictability, which is something it craves, whereas my time in the studio offers a necessary refuge from responsibilities and rules: a place where I can welcome in the extreme contrast of improvisation and messy chaos! I believe that contrast adds perspective and value to our lives, so I feel very grateful to be able to do both.

I am fascinated by the ever-changing yet cyclical nature of our human experience. I believe that we are all like onions, with so many layers to discover and reveal over time. Each discovery offers a shift in the perspectives of ourselves or the world around us.

My paintings reveal themselves to me layer by layer, with so many opportunities for surprise or recovery along the way. I love to explore improvisation and the emotion of color to express something within that may otherwise not have the words to be expressed or discovered. Feelings are not always able to be explained, but I believe that they are a tool for personal discovery. I hope to offer a moment of pause for my viewers to allow a connection to be felt. Without explanation.