Betty Hart

Room#: 411

Website: www.bettyhart.com

Statement:
I make work that falls somewhere between painting, photography, and alchemical tests. By enacting controlled accidents, I create visceral surfaces that provoke the gut and the emotions as much as the intellect. Using liquid and unpredictable materials, I set the stage for interaction, using simple processes like dipping, soaking, or scraping. I allow the compositions to evolve through time, gravity, and other variables I cannot control. The resulting works are both surface and image. They reference things like rust, mold, skin, aerial terrain, and cross-sections of landscape, but in their relative abstraction, they remain a mystery. Atmospheric and organic, they seem to be in a state of change. As chance determines the configuration and detail, the work increasingly "makes itself" and results in surprises for me and for viewers. My process is a balancing act between action and restraint. Through this process, I strive to transform familiar materials into something strange and extraordinary..