Visionary Works by Beth Courtright Detwiler

​Contemporary Visual Art By Beth Courtright Detwiler

What is visual art, you might ask. After all, isn’t all art visual? Well, no actually. The visual arts are those art forms that lead to the creation of works and objects that are visual in nature, that is, things that we can see. Artists use various mediums and materials such as paint and canvas to create objects. This is in opposition to other types of art forms, such as sounds and music, which are auditory arts – we hear them. Visual arts are incredibly diverse, and include an array of popular art forms such as paintings, sculpture, ceramics, photography, crafts, architecture and more. You will also find these art forms as an intrinsic part of many other artistic disciplines like performing arts and conceptual arts.

I consider myself to be a contemporary visual artist, and visionary. My work, which includes drawings, paintings, ceramic art and masking tape art, is symbolic in style, form and content, but still universal in nature. I use a variety of mediums to convey striking narratives and iconic images that hold significant personal meaning for me but are easily accessible to all viewers because their visual language allows them to be decoded in accordance with one’s own life and experiences.I get my influences from nature, life, as well as ancient and modern art eras, artists, and their iconic works. Written texts also influence me to a great extent.

I have been working as a professional artist for more than three decades now. I am also a professional arts educator. Although I started out working in clay, pen & ink, and oil painting in the early years of my career, I've transitioned to a more unorthodox medium, hand-painted masking tape, over the past decade using it as an alternative to traditional mediums for bigger, more large-scale installations. I create these masking tape art murals in the expansive corridors of the Old Jerome High School in Arizona, which is also the location of my studio, Word Is Art. Over the course of my career, I have faced numerous challenges and frustrations but that has helped me learn that the only way to get over a slump is to never give up.

Explore Ceramics, Drawings And Paintings, And Masking Tape Artworks At Word Is Art

Browse through my website or pay a visit to my studio, Word Is Art, Jerome, Arizona, to check out my work. My portfolio of ceramic work embodies a simple yet colorful aesthetic, mostly created using a palette of primary and secondary colors. The major themes that I explore through the medium of clay are Little Birds and Cracked Eggs sculptures, the designs of which have deliberately been made to be kinetic in nature. In addition to that, I also create both small and large-scale ceramic fruits and abstract female maquettes.

My paintings and drawings are characterized by their distinctively figurative narratives and allegorical themes. You will often find the same symbols and imagery in my paintings as you would in my ceramic sculptures. I have been largely influenced and inspired by the pantheon of the greatest surrealist women artists like Dorothea Tanning, Frida Kahlo, and Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, among others. And so, in my works, you will find a touch of that influence as I surreptitiously communicate my thoughts and ideas concerning a broad range of topics such as life, death, beauty and so on. I also draw inspiration from the works of modern, early 20th century artists like Georgia O’Keeffe and Picasso, as well as ancient artworks, the artists of which are still unknown.

For my masking tape artwork, I also use the primary and secondary colors along with a more modern black and white palette. I create large-scale installations as well as smaller art panels that are the perfect art pieces for decorating homes and galleries. The themes of my masking tape work are varied but they tend to focus on still life themes of beauty and nature as they exemplify ideas of childhood and innocence.

Thank you for visiting my website and viewing my portfolio. If you would like to purchase my works or to learn more about me and my creative process at my studio, Word Is Art, please feel free to get in touch with me. I would be more than happy to answer any questions that you might have.