BETSY PODLACH
“I have wanted to be a painter since I was in the fourth grade. I seek to present emotional, physical, erotic, spiritual, and intellectual images mainly of women and men, usually nude, painting as a woman who is involved in these processes and in life. The limits of painting provide me with ways to create tension and find my own imagery and the two-dimensional format offers the chance to create a personal concept and poetry of space. The paint, the developing image, and a light coming from within the painting ideally create an image often of a woman with an inner world of profound thought, emotion, and intelligence. I want the painting itself to be recognized for the object it is and that way, the moment depicted in the painting becomes permanent, and can transform the experience of time.
The work shown here was made during the COVID-19 pandemic; it includes many interiors and presents how we relate to each other during time indoors. Some of the paintings are smaller than usual and show the expansion of a smaller space that connection can provide, as well as showing the physical limits of these spaces we occupy.”
