Beth Baylin
Artist bio/Statement
BIO
Beth Baylin was born and raised in Portland Oregon. She received her BFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. Later, having moved to the East Coast, she earned an MFA from the University of North Carolina where she began to explore photography. In transitioning primarily to that medium, she discovered that taking pictures with an iPad allowed her more flexibility than traditional cameras. She prefers the large frame and ease of operation that it provides. “I was lost once photography went digital,” she says. “The iPad opened things up for me as I was daunted by the new technology." A longtime resident of Brooklyn she taught art at the Packer Collegiate Institute. She also has an MSW and practiced as a social worker in Brooklyn. After spending many summers in her second home in North Branch, New York, she now lives there full-time.
STATEMENT:
Having started out as a painter I think of my photographs more as painterly images. I search for intriguing juxtapositions and abstract relationships rather than literal depictions of what I see.
I don’t arrange content consciously but prefer to discover interrelationships among random “still lifes” that have settled on my kitchen table. In making incremental shifts of position and perspective with my iPad, worlds open up. Microcosms emerge that seem to transcend the objects in front of me. The less I immediately grasp what I am looking at, the more intrigued I am.
I am especially drawn to the angled light of late afternoon, enchanted by fleeting moments of sunlight on objects. Subject matter is drawn from what surrounds me, flowers from our summer garden in North Branch, fruit, vegetables, and kitchen utensils. The Brooklyn Botanic Gardens have been another source of inspiration. I am especially drawn to the reflecting ponds where fish below the surface, floating lily pads, ever-changing patterns of water and reflections of sun and clouds are all compressed to create multi-layered images.
Photography allows me to be present in the moment. To “capture” an image when the elements come together is an intoxicating and thrilling experience.In recent years I’ve exhibited at Catskill Art Space (CAS) in Livingston Manor and the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance (DVAA) in Narrowsburg and I have work in numerous private collections.
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