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August Issue 2008
Artists' Guild of Spartanburg in Spartanburg,
SC, Features Works by Beth Bullman Regula
The Moving Line, an exhibit of works by Beth Bullman Regula, opens Aug. 1 at the Artists' Guild Gallery in Spartanburg, SC's Chapman Cultural Center. The exhibit continues through Aug. 28, 2008.
The mixed media works - some made completely of paper and paint, others using fabric, paint and clay or clay and paint - explore Regula's fascination with the line.
"Ever since I can remember, I have been fascinated with lines. Lines that tree limbs make against the sky, lines a finger makes on a frosted glass, lines a toe makes in sand on the beach, lines that are made and called writing, lines that are used to create a piece of art," says the artist who is best-known for her large three-dimensional sculptural polymer clay pieces.
"When I look at these lines, I like to think of the lines as moving in space. How one line relates to another line seems to me to be a dance in space. This dance can be slow and sensuous or frenetic in nature. The way lines move and flow into each other creates images," says Regula.
The 35 pieces in the exhibit are smaller than most of her more elaborate clay works, ranging in size from 8" x 10" to 20" x 32". Keeping the works small allowed her to present "the moving line' in a number of different ways.
"I had fun creating these works because I worked freely with everything I had in the studio. I put no limitations on either the construction of the work or my imagination. I usually started with an idea that I had scribbled on a piece of paper but from there I let the different mediums I used take over," said the artist who usually works from detailed sketches.
One group in this exhibit is called What's in Your Closet?. These small pieces, whimsical in nature, represent an article of clothing that someone might find when cleaning out a closet. Another group, called String People, was created by pressing string into clay and then painting it. There is yet another group of works called Landscapes, most of which have a tree of some sort in them. Some were created by pressing string into clay and others by using a collage of paper, gold leaf, string and clay.
Regula and her husband Dennis have lived for more than 20 years on nine acres of woodland property that her family owned in Stone Station. When they married in 1983, the artist, a graduate of Dorman High School and Winthrop University, was working in Atlanta, GA, for Cox Cable Communications Inc., where she designed computer-based manuals and training programs.
Knowing that the former public school art teacher would have to be wooed back to her hometown, when the 30-something bachelor proposed, he promised that if she gave up her job in Atlanta and returned to South Carolina to marry him that she could become a full-time artist.
It was an offer that she didn't refuse. Now she works in the studio that her husband created for her in their pole-built home, soothed by the sound of more than 30 wind chimes that punctuate the silence. Through the studio windows she can see a gazebo and deck with pool and cascading water system, and when she needs a break, she gets her inner tube, a book and a glass of wine and spends the afternoon floating around the circular pond.
Regula sees her work as a reflection of her surroundings, "Lines that weave in and out, defining the world as I see it, both real and imaginary."
For further information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings, call Laura Pinkley at 864/764-9568.
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