BETSY PACKARD

About the Artist

MSAC Individual Artist Grants, 1988, 1991. Work in the permanent collections of The American University Museum,  Washington, D.C.; The Krannert Art Museum,Champaign-Urbana Illinois:  The Newcomb Art Museum, New Orleans, LA.  Solo-Duo  Exhibitions: American University Museum at the Katzen Arts center, DC: Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC; Anton Gallery, Washington, D.C; Gallery 10, DC.Selected Group Exhibitions: "Pattern and Process," Krannert Art Museum; "Metamorphosis," The newcomb Art Museum;  "Geometrix: Line, Form,Subversion," Curator's Office, Washington, DC,2015, "Recontextualizing the Found," Shiva Gallery, John Jay College, CUNY, NY,NY, 2014, "Washington Art Matters, 1940's-1980s, American University Museum, 2014,  "Readymade@100", AU Museum, 2014, "Hair Apparent," The Athenaeum, Alexandria, VA, 2013, "Green:A Color and a Cause (slideshow), Textile Museum, Washington, DC, "Spirit Materials" MPA, VA,  1991, "Objects and Installations," curated by Phyllis Rosenzweig, MAP, "Collecting, Organizing, Transposing", MAP, Baltimore, MD 1989.  "Artery '89" Strathmore Hall,, Rockville, MD "Ten Artists Working in New York and Wasington, DC", curated by Robert Feldman NYC and Jock Reynolds, Washington DC, Addison Galery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA 1986

Artist's Statement

I have long used the common found or "special saved "object as a mold or as material for sculpture and textile-based work. In the past I often employed a mass-produced type of packing container as a mold for cast paper, plaster, or cement---sometimes adding significant material to the casting, and leaving traces of the immediacy of my process visible in the finished work. Used fabric and textiles are currently my primary medium. There has always been a "green" aspect to my work, and the fabric offers portability and the option  to work on a larger scale.  In these pieces, the act of hand sewing is repetitive and can be meditative, like the process I used in the 1980's of making paintings with melted wax, one brushstroke at a time. Clothing and household linens retain the embodied history of their owners and thus possess an intrinsic aura. Strong, simple garment shapes are altered minimally. My materials link me to all who share the long tradition of making functional or beautiful objects with the everyday and near at hand.