Beth Waldman

Bio: Statement

For three decades now, I have been setting up camp around the world. From my Princeton sandbox to the Plaza of Sonoma, I have worked from what is revealed by site and the fingerprints I impart always with the help of strangers. I have traveled with my few possessions in hand through the Appalachian Range on foot for 34 days north to south. For the past decade now on the Pacific Coast, annual pilgrimages have taken me into the Sierra Nevada Range. Through the Amazon, I have canoed, fished, hunted and trekked. From Houston to San Francisco, from Rome to Rio, from Bangkok to Barcelona, I have immersed myself in extreme urban environments. Most recently, I have returned from Arequipa, Peru, where I witnessed rapid urban growth. From engagement with sites, strange at first and then familiar with time, I find my inspiration. My sculptural works considers site, community, material and experience in life-size dimensions using architectural language and materials from or inspired by sites. My 2D work references imaginary and real sites; from the visual language of those selected landscapes and the stories of those residing in those spaces, the framework for my work is constructed.

Bio

I have declared myself an artist since the age of 15. At first a painter, then a sculptor. Now I define myself and my work by neither. While I cast my first bronze sculpture at the age of 16, it was at Wellesley College where I seriously began sculpting with the lost wax process. At the time, my work was greatly influenced by my studies of Italian Renaissance art and modern master Rodin. A few years later I felt stuck in the past and pushed forward into more contemporary thinking and conceptual development with my art. My two years at San Francisco Art Institute helped me push my work in a multitude of directions from new genres to kinetic sound sculptures. However, my focus was pushing my art into the public realm. Installations and permanent and temporary projects filled the next 4 years with great satisfaction and scale. After the birth of my 1st daughter, I returned to a more mediative process with works on paper and canvas. I have been part of a collective SpaceCraft in San Francisco's Mission district since 2009 and show every 1st Thursday with them at the CellSpace Gallery. I continue my international travels to seek inspiration from urban sites, however, most of my work grows from passageways found the city I have called home now for 13 years, San Francisco.