About the artist

I’m Beth, an abstract expressionist artist who creates vibrant social justice-inspired paintings.

Have you ever felt like your emotional bandwidth has maxed out? Doing emotionally difficult PhD research while going through my divorce was like that—I couldn’t engage academically, but I needed some way to stay connected to my research. I needed some way to work through the dark parts to find the love, laughter, and resilience in the stories from my fieldwork. This led me to expressive painting.

These days, I find inspiration in the historical and contemporary social justice issues I teach at a local university.

Click here to find out where you can see my art and for details about upcoming events, including talks about my creative process. I’ve given such talks in Vancouver, Ottawa, Bloomington IN, Birmingham UK, Glasgow UK, and Johannesburg SA—were you at any of these? (Send me an email, I’d love to know!)

Also, you can find my art on the covers of award-winning books and in private collections across North America, Europe, and Asia.

View available paintings HERE.

(That’s my youngest son in Gulu, Uganda, helping me with my research in 2011.)

5 THings you (probably) don’t know about me:

1. I won a drawing contest when I was in elementary school and used the gift certificate prize to buy Whitney Houston’s debut album (on vinyl)—worth it! Also, coincidentally, my middle name is Whitney.

2. I used to play the bagpipes.

3. I spent over 10 consecutive years of my life (without break) pregnant and/or breastfeeding.

4. Until age 18, I planned on being a large animal veterinarian. My goal was to help the big animals of the Serengeti.

5. I detest eggs. However, I endure as necessary. When I go to Uganda, for example, friends know I’m vegetarian, so they inevitably treat me to a pot of scrambled fried eggs. It’s a thoughtful and generous gesture, which makes me appreciate eggs… while still detesting them.

When I’m not painting or sharing my art, I can be found: