Angle Gallery

May 2011

Betsy Barnum

In The Roots

Sometimes It’s Never Enough

STATEMENT:  I use my works on paper to describe my life, expressing my thoughts and emotions about a specific moment or circumstance through my relationships with those I am closest to. I build up thin layers of paint, collage, and pencil to conceal and reveal images the way emotions and behavior are unconsciously layered to hide or signal something to others. The gesture and composition of the figures in my work are very important, as they are the first indicators of the work’s meaning. I use recurring objects from piece to piece as symbols or metaphors for people and ideas. For example, I often use a typewriter to represent myself, or a bird as a metaphor for fear, joy, or anger. I use paper as my surface because of its flexibility, smoothness, and capacity for erasure. Like a palimpsest, it shows the progression and history of layers of marks. It is like skin; it wrinkles and fights back when worked on, asserting its personality into the painting or drawing. Like journal pages, my work is an ongoing narrative, each piece chronologically linked to the others. The work is often grouped in a series. Each gesture, color, layer, and object is significant, and each work interacts with the others to establish meaning through a repetition of these elements.

BIO:  Betsy Barnum was born in San Francisco, California in 1982. She has exhibited widely in the United States and Canada. In 2007 she received the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s prestigious Art 365 grant. Betsy earned a Master of Fine Art degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2006, and a Bachelor of Art, Magna Cum Laude, from Anderson University in 2004. Barnum currently resides in Seattle, Washington.

Opening Reception, Thursday May 5th, 2011- 5:00 to 9:00pm.

On view through May 28th  Hours Wednesday through Saturdays- Noon to 5:00pm

And by appointment.

The Angle Gallery is located at 312 S. Washington Street, Seattle, WA.  98104

Next Month- JUNE 2011:  NAG (North Seattle Artist Group)