Beth Edwards THE WORLD IN PIECES
Beth Edwards masterfully paints compositions that capture the color, shadow, light, and vibrancy that can only be experienced on the sunniest day. THE WORLD IN PIECES preserves the fleeting moments in the natural world right before a hydrangea’s petals are flecked with brown or a rose begins to droop. Edwards’ paintings are imaginative constructions of humble flowersroses, hydrangeas, zinnias - that employ a magnified cropping and confrontation scale, inspiring meditation and reflection, rather than just close looking.
The title of your show, THE WORLD IN PIECES, simultaneously describes the close cropping and bug's-eye perspective of your paintings and the upheaval we are experiencing as a country and planet. What have you been considering outside of your studio as you’re painting, and in what ways are the flowers a response to these climates?
Painting is my way to address the woes of the world. The title is a slightly altered line in David Baker’s poem entitled “Six Notes.” His line is “The world is in pieces.” My version indicates the literal cropping of expansive scenes, and as you suggest, the more desperate situation we are now in. I want to make work that provides joy and connects people to the natural world. While I want to reveal its fragility, I also want to present nature’s remarkable resilience and what a gift it is to all of us.
Of her work Edwards says, “I seek to make something that is commonplace – a flower blossom or clover patch – resonate and endure. Due to the life cycle embedded in the representation of flowers, these are vanitas images symbolizing the fleetingness of life. But due to the exuberant color in the work and with an emphasis on the beauty of nature, they are also meant to communicate joy. I hope this work provides a connection to, and awareness of, the natural world’s vitality and vulnerability.”
The flowers you frequently paint are native to the South, more humble, and often brighter in color - clover, hydrangeas, daffodils, and zinnias to name a few. They’re happy flowers. The roses and vase arrangements feel elevated and associated with grief. Can you talk about why you incorporated flowers with darker petals in this exhibition?
I paint commonplace flowers – ones that often occur in the South. As with all things, the more you look at something the more you realize how extraordinary it is. The humble/extraordinary dichotomy runs through the history of my work. I like to elevate things people take for granted. However, I never imagined I would be painting roses. But I agree, they are more serious flowers than the zinnias. The roses are formal and stately. The zinnias, by contrast, are pure joy.
I am drawn to the organization of a flower – its structure and the way light lands on the petals. The color of zinnias is effusive and glowing – they are made to be painted.
There’s a strong tension between vulnerability and vitality in your work; the paintings are delicate and radiant while containing nostalgia and other heavy emotions. How do flowers as a subject help you balance those elements, and in what ways do scale and color play a role in evoking emotion?
I initially turned to painting flowers to express my gratefulness and appreciation for life. The large-scale images of flowers came after the illness and death of my father – I wanted to paint images that contained the grief I was feeling. This was the first of a series of large hydrangea blossom paintings. The zinnia paintings followed those hydrangeas and were increasingly upbeat and celebratory. But due to the tremendous threats now facing the natural world, all of the paintings possess a degree of urgency and insistency which is partially conveyed by their magnified scale.
As bright and vibrant as these paintings are, their magnificence is overshadowed by the inherent temporality and vulnerability of flowers. The inevitability of death for all living things grounds the heightened beauty in Edwards’ paintings. Looming, dark backgrounds peeking through leaves, stems, and petals complicates the initial joyous response that comes with viewing these paintings. Edwards depicts an impossible beauty, referencing our own expectations of success and happiness that is fleeting and finite.
What and who are influences in your life that sparked your career as a painter?
I grew up in a household of artists. My father was a painter and my mother was an interior designer. My brother, sister and I all painted and drew from an early age. When I was sixteen, my family moved from North Carolina to Pennsylvania. It was then I turned to art to assuage my longing for the beautiful place I left behind. That is when I started seriously painting.
Can you speak to your approach to developing a piece - what flowers you select and why, if flowers seen growing in a garden or arranged in a vase are incorporated into the same painting?
I generally compose an image that I assemble from multiple sources. I photograph flowers in my own garden, at the Memphis Botanic Garden, at the Dixon and anywhere else I see flowers. I move individual plants around in Photoshop until an arrangement emerges. The individual flowers are like actors on a stage – each one vying for attention. The vase paintings are set-ups that I put together then photograph. The vases themselves reference my earlier work as a still life painter. The tangible yet transparent nature of the vases is an enjoyable subject to paint and is in stark contrast to the opaqueness of the flowers.
Beth Edwards was born in Alabama, and lives and works in Memphis. She received a BFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, and an MFA from Indiana University. The daughter of a painter and an arts educator, Edwards has had an active 30-year career painting, exhibiting and teaching. THE WORLD IN PIECES comes to Memphis after an exhibition at the Springfield (OH) Museum of Art, and at Belmont University in Nashville. She taught painting for many years at The University of Memphis, and is the recipient of much recognition, including: a 2024 Tennessee Arts Commission fellowship, the Distinguished Research Award from The University of Memphis; an Arts Accelerator Grant from Arts Memphis; UrbanArt Memphis mural commissions; Memphis in May artist honoring Sweden; Yaddo and McDowell Colony residencies. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions across the US, including Huntsville (AL) Museum of Art; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis; Contemporary Art Workshop, Chicago; and Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Little Rock.