From hands to faces, Betzi Stein creates incredibly vivid, wonderful depictions of people as a life form, their energy and emotion and purpose palpable in her vibrant work. Her contemporary realism shines with genuine love, a love that seems both hard fought and deeply won.
Asked what inspires her work, Betzi Stein keeps it simple “People… I am drawn to people of all shapes, sizes and colors. And if they are doing or wearing something interesting or quirky, I get a hit telling me to record the moment. Very often they are just folks living their lives, who happen to pass through my visual field and get caught, preferably unbeknownst to them, in the lens of my iPhone and potentially/eventually onto my canvas.”
Above, Reflexting – the work captures a mundane moment and makes it sing and literally shine; it reflects not just in that car bumper but in the viewer’s mind.
Stein relates that “I have come to realize over time that my art is all about ME. My desire—quest, really—is to learn to love and accept myself for who I am. I have spent much of my life living through other people, comparing and judging myself against them as well as being equally judgmental of others. I assume that I’ve had such difficulty being able to articulate why I make my art because I’ve allowed others to judge my work.”
Above, the artist with a painting of – herself.
She adds that with her current body of work, her own understanding and acceptance of self has deepened leading her to chose more carefully who she chooses as her subject, the “regular people who I celebrate as I celebrate myself.” She finds she’s more confident and willing to experiment with new ideas and materials.
Stein began as a sculpture major in college, always working figuratively; later she found a calling as a massage therapist, which she says “felt completely natural to me, sculpting living bodies rather than creating them out of clay. The evolution from one to the other was cathartic and gave me a deep respect for what I could do with my hands. When I began to paint, it felt important to honor my hands and those of others with the Massage and Hands portraits.”
These paintings are of a particularly poignant luster. “It’s not the paintings—but the spiritual connection they represent—that brought them into being and further affects what my work is about now.”
Both of her current series, no surprise, involve paintings of people. They are each rich in detail, delightful, and fully realized stories that bring her subjects to a life that is not only easily recognizable but wonderfully rewarding for the viewer to explore.
“The first, which I’ll call the Bold Series, can be people who I may or may not know, and who I’m inspired to paint for any number of reasons. Often single figures are shown against solid, brightly colored backgrounds. Bold colors are a defining characteristic of each painting.”
The second is a new series on the art world, as with her above work, “Art Fair.” Stein explains “I am interested in the people who populate every aspect of that world, for which I have a love/hate relationship, and which, of course, includes me and my fellow artists, gallerists, critics, collectors, art lovers, auctioneers, art handlers, etc. So far, the few works that I’ve completed are set in an environment of some kind and I plan to continue in that vein.”
Her narrative structure in her work is based on the fact that each subject seems to tell a story to the artist she says, before she creates the work.
“If I know the person(s) there is something compelling about them and their story that usually affects me on an emotional level. If I don’t know them, the reason I chose to paint them is revealed to me intuitively. Whatever the reason, I am not just painting bodies.”
Indeed not – she is painting lives, or perhaps more to the point, making art come alive. The subjects are so involving, so perfectly rendered, as to be before the viewer, paused for a moment as if time stopped, then moving on to new adventures in viewers’ minds and hearts.
“I am a realist painter paying enormous attention to the formal elements that go into creating a work of art, and specifically include the aspects of my personality that make each piece my own: humor, snark when necessary, empathy, com(passion) and heart.”
She asserts that “The people I paint are very personal to me, and it feels like I am inhabiting their being while I am painting them. Once the painting is finished, I disconnect. I equate it to how an actor immerses herself into the character she is playing until the project is completed.”
Stein is not only a rather glorious artist, she’s just one of those people. People who love people. And she makes us love them all, too.
- Genie Davis; Photos provided by the artist and Shoebox PR