Artist Statement
Betsy A. Cavalier
Artists Statement
My personal experience of pregnancy led me to possess a pronounced fascination with the internal connections that are crucial for human existence. It led me to examine and understand the tenuous and fragile processes involved with the point of coming into being. This, in turn, led me to create new ways to visually introduce the subject. The main focus of my paintings, objects and installations is to visually distill the links and relationships between internal functioning networks. Placing a specific emphasis on the material in which I use, I visually construct tedious and complex convergences that suggest biological networks within the human body.
My work is primarily about process, materiality and the relationships or reactions that occur with the injection of synthetic material and organic elements. Combining opposing materials, especially in my installations, allows me to create artificial environments by disguising the initial utilitarian purpose of the manufactured by manipulation or meshing it with organic matter. This creates not only visual tension, but suggests the relationships between interdependent parts working together to create a whole.
Internal functioning networks have been an ongoing subject for my imagery, objects and artistic processes. The initial motivating source for my concepts and subject matter stem from my personal experience of pregnancy. This experience drove me to examine and understand the tenuous biological systems and crucial connections that are vital for human existence.
My current work is primarily about process, materiality and the relationships or reactions that occur with the injection of two opposing materials. Still focusing on connections and systems, both literal and visual, I’m allowing myself, in my most current work, to place emphasis on the excessive nature of intricately connected biological systems. My imagery evolves by way of application, materiality and, in most cases, a great deal of layering. The fusion of the materials within each individual layer, along with my imagery, creates not only visual tension, but suggests the relationships between interdependent parts working together to create a whole.
During the last two years of my undergraduate program I began utilizing my paintings and prints to create specific environments. This investigation led me to where I am, as an artist, today. Painting will always be a large part of my work, whatever the discipline may be. Yet, I am currently exploring the more sculptural, three-dimensional aspects of my work and how I can utilize these elements to create my own artificial environments. I enjoy the idea of the manipulation of space and I definitely feel more freedom and much less confinement when I am working within an open area and not within the surface of a panel or canvas. Therefore, my intent for the remainder of the year is to utilize disciplines within the 2D and 3D to create large installation work.