Painting of Shosh w/ Guitar, by artist Beth Schaeffer
An annonymous quote from the 70's: "Conceptual art is great fun to talk
about, great fun to plan, and great fun to create; but when it comes to
looking at it -- eh, not necessarily...." Well, Beth Schaeffer, who's
artwork I've long admired, has proven that to be ALL WRONG! Schaeffer
has broken down the walls by conceptualizing and creating an exciting
and dynamic, utterly contemporary ARTISTIC utilization of MySpace --
yep, MySpace. She writes, on her MySpace site (linked above): "I am an
artist who is working on a series called "Voyeureality", using some of
the striking images that I find on MySpace. Everyone on MySpace wants to
show themselves in a certain way. The variety is immense and
interesting. A recent article in the NY Times Style section talked about
the great self portraits found on the site, done by regular people. I am
someone who always looks for the creativity in everyday life. Check out
the paintings in my pics section, and see if one of them is you!"
I was delighted to discover that, indeed, one of her paintings is ME --
with my guitar!
I couldn't WAIT to see the actual painting (although you can see the
cyber version on Beth's MySpace) at Beth's Brooklyn art opening in
October 2006 - -- got anticipatory chills just thinking of walking into
the studio event that weekend seeing (gulp) myself in paint in the
middle of a room full of all those groovy edgy women in paint -- all of
us traveling cross-dimensional from cyberspace via MySpace to Beth's Art
Painting Space via her creative mind to her Studio Room DUMBO (Down
Under the Manhattan Bridge) Space via her own MySpace site and then of
course some of us were there in the room in the flesh -- like Real Life
Space. "Deep" as we used to say. I love how Beth added her own photo to
the mix on the site -- peering out at us -- but With us, one of us, but
crossing reality cause she's a photo and we're painted.... Ah, now THIS
is the kind of stimulating art that I really like. Tickled pink to be a
part of it, but would have recommended it highly in any case. It was fun
to hear how some people wandered into the exhibit and recognized me from
the painting, not having known I would be in it, recognizing my hair my
guitar, that something else that she captured...
Click to Beth's Home Page
Click to the
MySpace Voyuereality Site
Back to Shosh's Home Page
