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Meet Trailblazer Beth Courtright-Detwiler

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Beth Courtright-Detwiler.

So, before we jump into specific questions about what you do, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Hi, I am an artist in Northern Arizona, located in the beautiful Verde Valley Region, specifically in the towns of Jerome and Cottonwood.

My story is basically as follows:

I am a professional artist for 30 + years and also a professional arts educator.
I work in many mediums including clay, oil painting, pen & ink, and most recently began working with hand-painted masking tape (in 2009-present), as an alternative drawing material for large scale installations executed in the vast corridors of the Old Jerome High School – where my studio, titled Word is Art is located.
The name of my studio stems from an illustrative and visionary art cartoon which was a regular feature in an Art Magazine, Art in Progress, in the early – mid-1990’s in Baltimore, Maryland.

The masking tape was originally explored to be a segway to large scale images with the intent of stop motion animation but then took on a life of its own as I began to create large scale cornfields, still lifes, flower gardens and then merged them with community involvement, which created a type of “happening” or “public art collaboration in the form of mural projects.

I truly enjoy the process of masking tape art and find that it has all the makings of an art therapy modality, as well as being an intuitive medium that is accessible to all ages and art backgrounds.

In addition to using tape as a large scale art tool, I also create smaller masking tape art panels that can be hung in galleries and homes as individual wall art pieces.

Currently, I use a simplistic modern pallet of black & white, with the emphasis on primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and secondary colors (orange, purple, green). All my tape is hand-painted or hand sprayed by me, and I usually paint large quantities of tape at a time and then preserve it on plastic sheeting which can be rolled and stored for large scale projects.

I tend to create iconic and symbolistic images that are simple and often universal in nature. The meaning of these images and icons hold deep meaning for me personally but are accessible to all viewers… as a visual language that can be decoded. In most recent years, my themes appear to me to relate and link back to childhood and innocence, while conveying contemporary style and sophistication. On a deeper intuitive level, I find the work to function as visionary.

The ceramic work that I am currently doing is also simplistic and colorful, keeping to a similar pallet of primary and secondary color. My main themes in clay are small Little Birds and larger Cracked Egg sculpture that are intentionally kinetic in their design (with position-able egg yolks and egg whites flowing). I also produce colorful ceramic fruit and am currently to make them unusually large in scale. I also enjoy sculpting abstracted figurative female maquettes in clay.

My oil paintings are figurative narratives and allegorical storytelling themes which generally contain some/all of the symbols and imagery found in my simpler masking tape art icons and ceramic sculpture. In my paintings, there is a hint of surrealism/symbolist influence as I covertly convey my thoughts regarding beauty, origin, life, and passing of life to death and “the great beyond” if you would.

Bio: I was born in Omaha Nebraska. I spent my early childhood and youth growing up in Midwestern states of the U.S (Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin). My college years were spent in Columbus, Ohio where I attended The Ohio State University and graduated in 1990 with a BFA. I went to Baltimore, Maryland after college and lived in the Inner Harbor and Mid-town neighborhoods of Inner City, B-Town. I worked as a painter and illustrator, building my career as a gallery artist for several years. I then began working with low income and homeless inner-city youth through the arts and also thru a small inner-city mission. I was an arts coordinator and mentor to teens in an urban youth outreach center where art was a tool for coping with life and poverty.

I continued to use art with young people and became even more involved with the cause and working with at-risk youth, writing grants and working in non-profit organizations. I continued to pursue my own art thru gallery exhibition and representation. Then eventually, I moved with my family to the Verde Valley in 1998 when my husband took a work position in Cottonwood, AZ.

I returned to school for my Masters in 2016 for teaching Art in order to support my family after a divorce…
I have two children (who are both grown now and artists in their own right), Noah is 18 and will be attending ASU Tempe Campus this fall for Musical Theater; and Hannah who is a licensed stylist, visual artist, and work and lives in the town of Jerome.

Has it been a smooth road?
There are always struggles as an artist, but the greatest advice I can offer to others (and that which I offer to the 150 high school art students I teach each day) is this-never stop making art and trying to find and hone your voice. If you are frustrated, press thru it… or try another medium.

Art and the creative spirit can be found in every endeavor. Learn to think for yourself, we all have something to contribute, and in art, there are no wrong answers. Creativity is open-ended. You may have the next great idea. Go to museums, go to symphonies, and films. Listen to poetry, read and think. Take a walk in nature. Listen to the birds and insects… for they are singing to us, as well as to each other and these things can all be put into your artistic expressions.

Please tell us more about your artwork, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I am a visual artist; I am contemporary and visionary in style and interest.

I am an art instructor and teach private lessons, workshops and currently teach high school Art to 9th-12th graders at Mingus Union High School in Cottonwood, AZ. I am in my 4th year there.

I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Ohio State University with an emphasis in Ceramics, Oil Painting, and Metalsmithing.

I recently completed my Masters of Education from Prescott College with and emphasis in Art and Secondary Education.

I am a published illustrator and cartoonist. My current masking tape artwork has been published in feeds of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

I am currently rebuilding my resume after finishing grad school and am represented by a few local and regional galleries.

In the past few years, my focus has been on large scale public art collaboration and teaching, In addition, I am working on a new body of work, in series with both 2-D and 3-D emphasis and will be working toward gallery representation in larger metropolitan areas in the coming new year.

Which women have inspired you in your life?
Wow, so many whose names I do not know.

Woman artists include:

Symbolists/Surrealists::
Just a few that I love and enjoy looking at: Dorthea Tanning, Lenorra Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varo, and a myriad of other startling surrealist women. I also like O’Keefe, Mary Cassatt, Florence Estes, and so many others. I do admit that I am also influenced by the whole gamut of early to mid-20th century “modern artist era, both male and female,

I also like a good deal of ancient art – which may have been mainly constructed by men or women, we do not know. I find that I am also influenced greatly by written text as much as visual images.

I did study with some amazing women when in college, Deborah Horrell and Barbara Kruger, who were fabulously inspirational in my formative years.

I admire many of my peers today, the most astonishing being Deborah Griffing Heller, who resides and works in Columbus Ohio.

Pricing:

  • Little Birdies – $25 each
  • Ceramic Eggs range from $150 – $350 (depending on size)
  • Masking Tape Art Panels – Ranging from $175-$650
  • Paintings-Ranging from $135-$2000
  • Masking Tape Art – Quality Art Cards & Archival Giclee Prints $5-$75

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Kim Hoshel is credited for photo of masking tape art large scale installation of Cornfield at Old Jerome High School, She is a professional photographer, and friend of the artist, and now resides in Oregon. She did work for Arizona Highways while occupying a studio in Jerome at the time of this installation.

All other art photos supplied by the artist, Beth Courtright Detwiler, and copyrighted. Permission given to display for web or print.

Suggest a story: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.

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