Beth Waldner

I have always enjoyed creating. What does creating mean to me? Rather than give a definition, I’ll give a few examples from my life. From what I remember at age 3, I loved gathering all my toys and piling them up into a mountain shape in the corner of my room.  At 5, I would decorate cardboard boxes, fill them with dirt, add leaves, sticks, flowers & pools of water & then use it to train caterpillars to follow a certain dirt course as a circus act.  I made a nest & put it in our almond tree.  People who would know said no bird would come, but 2 birds did in fact choose it as their home and laid an egg that later hatched.  Also, I did love the big box of Crayola crayons and spent hours of fun using them.  Just to look at all those colors was enough!

I helped direct a summer theater in our garage, with my sisters & most of the neighborhood kids. We created the plays, scripts, costumes, stage, etc.  We also designed & built endless forts in the orange grove, while we practiced becoming the heroes of our own wonderful stories.  As a teenager I began designing my own dresses that my mom would then sew.  The joy of experiencing that led me to declare Fashion as my major in college.

When I married & had my own 3 kids, I sewed, worked on stain glass, quilting, mosaics, silk dyes, painted clothing, painted canvas floor cloths, and hand painted wooden items (a breadbox, 5’ pillar, ceiling fan, shutters, dresser, etc.).  I loved experimenting with different styles & cultures, using lettering from the Renaissance period, dot art from the Aboriginal culture, colors & drawing from Mexico, graffiti from the street art movement, etc.  

I’ve never been the artist who enjoyed drawing for hours.  I learned I can draw, but I have no joy in the detailed process of it. I do enjoy sketching, thank goodness, because I really need that skill in my other work.  I am more likely to cover things in fabric or paint with color, mix patterns, transform, rejuvenate and bring items into a new functionality & beauty. That is the excitement! I tend to highlight nature and people in my work.  I’ve been intrigued by the view through a window, seeing from that inner sanctum to the outside world & am starting to form a body of work surrounding that theme. I’ve lived close to & enjoyed being in the ocean for years & the mood of the waves absolutely intrigues me! I find expressing the movement & emotion of them through broken glass to be deeply satisfying. I’m very drawn to fragmented, torn, cut or broken pieces of papers, tile, glass, shells, etc. and see them fitting together, forming the image of a piece, as in collage, mosaic & my glass work.