Aug 31 - Sept 2, 2022

Opening Reception: Friday, September 2, 6-8 pm

Betsyann Duval:
“Stream of Unconsciousness”

Linda Klein: “Nature Defiant II”

Poetry Reading Organized by Linda Klein:
Sunday, September 18, 2-4 pm

Betsyann Duval:
“Stream of Unconsciousness”

Exploration has always characterized my art. The current madness of our political, cultural, health, and sexual absurdities, and my pressing need to make sense of those who seek to control our actions, our thoughts, and even our innermost selves -- those who are committed to destroying creativity, joy, our reproductive choices, who we love, the “other,” and the very planet we live on – drives me to shut off the noise to find the sanest, most restful place to explore.  I enter my stream of unconsciousness, that refuge where my mind flows unimpeded.

 The Stream of Unconsciousness is the space we find at the border of dreams, when we meditate, and when we create. It is the space where meaning is abstract, where judgement disappears, and where time loses dimension. In sports we’re in “the zone.” In the arts, we’re with “the muse.” For me, it’s a space of magic.

How I work
I work both conceptually and intuitively, choosing a medium and technique that will either fulfill a concept or inspire an intuitive, unconscious response. I continually explore new media in my work including painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, installation, and performance. (This exhibition includes just painting, sculpture, drawings, and sound imagery.)  And, sometimes when the medium takes over and the result is totally unexpected, I am rewarded with a sense of delight and the question always, “Who made this?”

How I came to the Stream of Unconsciousness
When I was a very young child, I waked one morning and felt I was an alien in what I had come to feel as my place. The house, the neighborhood, even my parents … everything looked the same, smelled the same, sounded the same, but somehow I felt different, altered. It was as if I had been switched with another “me”; that “me” was in my “place” and I was in hers. I waited and waited, but I never switched back. As I grew older that “other child, other place” faded away. Now, I wonder what the other “me” is doing in “my place”.  Is she in a parallel universe the stream of the unconsciousness?

What informs My  Work?
My work is informed by poetry, film, music, and dance, the ephemera of The Situationists, the wild freedom of the Action Painters, and the ridiculous and abstruse creations of the Fluxus movement.

Join In
In all my work, I seek to involve my audience. In this exhibit, I want to thank all the artists, poets, family, and friends who shared their unconsciousnesses for the sound piece Stream of Unconsciousness. Listen, loosen you mind, and be free to dream.

 As the poet Rhina P. Espailliat said,

“…we are trying to distill and share some beauty or joy to offset

whatever in our lives wants to emerge as a cry.”

Linda Klein: “Nature Defiant II”

The content of this exhibit, “Nature Defiant II,” continues the exploration I began in my 2020 exhibit, “Nature Defiant.” This work is devoted to celebrating the resilience of nature and her desire to assert herself in the forms of things yet unknown."