Wow, was what came out of my mouth when I first saw Beth Cavener Stitcher's arresting sculptures. My friend Dagan had sent me an email asking me if I was familiar with her work, attaching a link for me to peruse. Scrolling through her years of work I felt like I had let myself down in some way not knowing about Beth's work. Mind you my friend had followed up his first question with: "because you should be if you aren't." Ugh, I know!
Initially when I look at work, I gauge how quickly my mind starts to wander as I take a piece in. I really pay attention to my visceral reaction. Beth's work sent my mind into emotional overdrive. I had so many questions, ideas, thoughts. I was simply blown away. I am absolutely taken with how she translates human emotion through the animals she creates. Exploring body language as a metaphor, she portrays her animal subjects as 'human psychological portraits':
"The sculptures I create focus on human psychology, stripped of context and rationalization, and articulated through animal and human forms. On the surface, these figures are simply feral and domestic individuals suspended in a moment of tension. Beneath the surface they embody the impacts of aggression, territorial desires, isolation, and pack mentality"
The piece above, A Second Kind Of Lonliness, is probably one my favorites of Beth's. Every eight seconds a breath is released from the goat's mouth and the pinwheel spins. SO many levels of awesome.
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