Beverly Kedzior

Raucous Lagoon
acrylic on wood
24 x 48 x 2 in.

Blue Hug
acrylic on wood
24 x 24 in.

Long before I became acquainted with the Dada and Pop visionaries, I was fascinated by The Jetsons. Saturday mornings were reserved for cartoon shows and Sunday mornings were not complete without the comic strips. When I was twelve (I was a late bloomer), I wrote a letter to Walt Disney offering my services as one of his artists – no salary required. (Disney declined the offer)

So It is not an accident that some of my paintings resemble vivid, spongy and psychedelic Landscapes that a space-age cartoon family might zoom through; or that others look like a Wassily Kandinsky painting meeting the Lava Lamp. A critic once suggested that I might have been influenced by a 1960’s educational film introducing youngsters to the wonders of the digestive system.

I glean images from newspaper ads and magazines, much of it in the form of cartoon imagery. Mass media is a substantial part of our culture and a great deal of what we see in advertising today is similar to what was being used in the l940s, ‘50s and ‘60s. Every age needs to move on to the next thing and it is true that we can’t go backwards. We can, however, get reruns.

I have also been influenced by Arshile Gorky, Dr. Seuss, Andy Warhol, Peter Saul and Pixar.

© Beverly Kedzior