No, she’s not pregnant. Having A Baby is the title of a strange little photo series she completed earlier this year. The title is a reference to the cliché idea that creating art is like birthing a child, but it’s also poking fun at the mass perception of women artists, especially photographers. Based on the title alone, most people in the male dominated photo world would groan – “not yet another woman documenting her children, her pregnancy, etc.”

Beth’s title anticipates this attitude on behalf of her art world peers. And then it slaps it back at them with one of the most odd-ball, creative, metametameta groupings of pictures I’ve seen on the net in a long time. (Beth cautioned me here, while I was talking to her previously: “I don’t want anyone looking too hard for these ‘meta’ connections. They might not enjoy the pictures.”)

It seems that while I was busy finishing my photo degree, worrying about consistency or trying to finally throw off the weight of obsessing about technique, Beth was quietly taking pictures with her cell phone, point and shoot nikon, a holga, my borrowed rolleicord, her old slr, a camera she found in a garage, even a little mermaid digital camera (less than one megapixel.) They were all dropping into one big folder to be edited down later.

Connections made, inferences, little jokes, outright attacks on the viewer, on the medium, on expectations. I expect many viewers will not understand what excites me about this gallery. I’m not sure I understand, but I keep laughing.

Many of these photographs carry the same strangeness as her painting, odder perhaps because of their undeniable link to life. Some of them, like the one below, directly reference painting of the past while trying to throw off the hip connotations of their own medium (A holga rothko?).

Take some time and look through it in order. I’m tired and I have trouble expressing how amazing I find this gallery.

The mixed media, photography, and electronic work is actually relatively new for Beth. Judging by the debris around our room, her primary medium is paint. At least, for our purposes, I’m placing ink washes and such under this category.

If you visit our house, you will see a plethora of paintings. Many are figure studies, finely worked nudes and masterfully rendered drapery. Beth has the skills to make a salable portrait, and I’ve seen her put hours into copies of ancient masterworks.

However, judging by the pieces she decided to place online, classic technique is far from her mind. She seems more interested in limits, the limits of paint, the edge of her perception. Many of the pieces she cherishes the most were made in shockingly short periods of time, especially when considering the trials of the medium. These two, from the gallery simply titled Paint, are obviously explorative. Others in the gallery are inquests into her anxieties and celebrations of her obsessions. Classic craft is a tool to be twisted or gleefully ignored.

This image, from her Mash Ups set is a fine example of a series of small canvases that have lately been stashed around the bathroom and hallways. They are inspired, I think, by our horribly textured walls, which Beth stares at for hours, finding animals and demons, faces and constellations. Again, exploration – no such work could be precisely pre-conceptualized.

The gallery Ask A Grown Up showcases a slightly more conventional series. The copy work here is unfortunately lacking, these pieces are much more attractive offline (I’ll be helping with this soon, I’m sure. I bet we can make em look better on the site).

These are children Beth has had a hand in raising, her two much younger siblings and a pair she often cares for while their parents are away. On the cusp of adulthood, they may be eager to leave childish things behind (or in the background as it were, har.)

These are my interpretations, of course, and in a curt manner. There’s a lot to be found in her brush touched works. She tells me more will be online very soon. One I’ve seen – a portrait of our landlord’s dog, a Chihuahua, towering god-like over a quaint European landscape.

I’m kicking off this mega-feature with Boys. These are my absolute favorites of all her creations. They rank extremely high among everything I’ve seen, period. I could talk at length, but I’ll spare you. A celebration of the history of art, a hilarious feminist visual battery, and damn fine use of my favorite lowbrow medium, the animated gif. Genius.

When I first saw these presented, they were projected a little bit larger than life size. You can view them larger at her site.

Beth and I have been very close for some time. We first dated during her freshman year of college. Our first collaborative installation and opening was in early 2008. Later that year we moved in together. We recently celebrated the one year anniversary of that move (not to mention her 22nd birthday this past September 24th.) My photographs of her from The Ones We Love have just been published in Issue 20 of JPG Magazine.

Now I’m dedicating a week to celebrating her work and the launch of her website. Allowing that I am just about as biased as any one person can be, know that Elizabeth Heppenstall is one of my absolute favorite artists. She understands that I won’t hesitate to tell her when I think something she does sucks (same goes for just about anyone), but I also have the benefit of knowing how she thinks – sharing similar aesthetic sensibilities and (often more importantly, with her work) sense of humor.

Obviously, this is the epitome of nepotist blogging, which is why it is my preference to keep this a personal blog, as much as I write about other topics and feature a wide variety of people I don’t know and have never met. While there are very very many talented artists out there, we rely on our friends to support us, especially when we are just starting out and no one else knows our name, never mind actually making it to our shows. So, I don’t feel any guilt over devoting time and space to my loved one: almost all of this work has never been seen before on the internet.

It is my absolute pleasure to introduce it.

www.behepp.com