Beth Shadur

Ice Cusp (2017)
watercolor on paper
11 x 13 in.

My new works in the Fragility of the Sacred series comprise paintings and individual handmade artists’ books that include the poetry of Lois Roma-Deeley, with whom I have collaborated on a number of projects since 2004. The text serves to enhance, define or even to challenge the viewer to think of connections between what might seem to be unrelated images. Text is also used to provide information on environmental issues.

The new work integrates idea, text and visual images, with the theme of fragility. I am undertaking this work now as I am a mid-career artist, facing aging parents and the loss of my sister to a rare form of cancer. I am looking at fragility of not only the wider environment, but the fragility of our own lives, both in terms of physical fragility but in terms of emotional fragility so common in our current world situation. As I age, I understand more significantly how fragile our plans are for our futures, and I am using symbolism to explore and portray these ideas.

Much of my work has had an environmental focus, based on two residencies in which I explored the impact of global warming on glacial ice melt. The piece included here is part of this group of works.