Bethany Noel

Over Troubled Water

Inspired by: Robert Adams, Bulldozed Slash Winslow Homer, Gathering Berries

acrylic paint, pencil, chalk pastel, and white gesso on canvas

30″ x 30″ x 2″

2021

I create emotional, subtly surreal large-scale acrylic paintings about my chronic migraine disease’s neurological symptoms as I experience them in nature. I experience a myriad of different neurological symptoms, including Alice-in-Wonderland-esque effects such as macroscopia, microscopia, and ocular aura. I developed my own adapted divisionism painting technique to represent what my neurological migraine optical distortion looks like and feels like. I seek out nature to find beauty and peace. What is intolerable in a CVS’s flickering florescent light is joy in the woods. I choose the eerie joy of my mirage-like otherworldly vision, finding hope and solace despite the pain that is my constant companion. I am choosing to see my world a la Winslow Homer, and ignore the realities of human industrialization, as exhibited in Robert Adams’s work.

@bethanynoelart