BJ Beck
Painting
Artist’s Statement
I am a perceptual, representational painter drawn to themes of transition, passages, movement, fugitive moments in time, and the beauty of mundane objects and settings. I work from direct observation and a variety of source materials, including my own response to the motif, the thing itself (an awareness psychiatrists call autognosis). Unlike the instantaneous capture of photography, the very act of painting travels through time, a fourth dimension. No matter the persistence of the observation, the observed is fluid, changeable, often uncontrollable and interactive - the sun moves, shadows shift, wine evaporates, fruit ripens, flowers wilt, seasons change. I strive, as a painter, to embrace the unexpected, the transient moments and surprises that have everything to do with my experience. I try not to be overly constrained by reality. My goal is to translate an experience into paint on a two-dimensional surface. I like to engage the viewer with a sense of "being there," or a sense of curiosity or humor. I also like to leave a trace, something that suggests I was there.
The Interview:
BJ Beck, May 2026
NJM: Tell us where you first exhibited your work?
BJB: I hung my work in hair salons, restaurants, insurance offices, libraries and Starbucks—places no one goes to buy art. I had my first art sale in a frame shop in MA. My first real exhibit, after graduating art school at Mass. College of Art and Design (MASSART), was at the Arts Guild in 2020 when I moved to Sonoma and became a member of the guild. I received my BFA in 2016 and my MFA in 2018, when I was also working full time in my psychiatry practice.
NJM: Did you grow up on the East Coast?
BJB: The Midwest. Going from Chicago to New England, I attended Pace U./New York Medical College and received an MSN (Master of Science in Nursing). After a nurse practitioner preceptorship in Cabin Creek, WV, I moved to Maine where I worked in a family practice physician residency program for ten years, then went to U of VT College of Medicine, receiving my MD in 1991. After that I did a one-year general medicine internship at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco. In 1992 I went to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for did my psychiatry residency, followed by a fellowship in psychosomatic medicine completed in 1995. After moving to Sonoma, I continued to do some administrative psychiatric work until 2023. Although I was at least 15 years older than my medical school classmates, and decades older than my art school classmates, I believe that education is the great equalizer.
NJM: Do you consider your work more realism or fantasy?
BJB: All artwork is an abstraction. I consider myself a representational artist/painter and like to put some of myself in each piece. I try to paint the phenomenon, which is any ordinary thing or object or event as it presents itself to my experience, rather than as it may or may not be in reality. I discovered this concept in a wonderful book, At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell when I was in art school and it totally transformed how I thought about painting.
NJM: Are you happiest when creating art?
BJB: Yes, but it's also a very solitary practice, like psychiatry. I am introverted by nature, but need some social interaction as well. The more I am able to paint, the better I am at socializing.
NJM: Is it hard to part with your work?
BJB: It used to be because each piece was such a full-time endeavor, that it was hard to let it go. But these days painting is my job and as I create more work, I find that it's much easier to let it go. Also, I retain good images of all my work and make an annual calendar of all my new work. So, I am able to re-visit all of it and I send a calendar to anyone who has purchased a painting.
NJM: Why is painting your medium of choice?
BJB: I've dabbled in other mediums, but I realize that I'm not really a 3D person. It's why I didn't go into surgery.
NJM: Favorite Artist(s)?
BJB: I've always been drawn to illustrators. I grew up in the Midwest, with the Saturday Evening Post and Reader's Digest. Favorites would be; Norman Rockwell, J.C. Leyendecker (the Arrow Shirt artist), Maxfield Parrish and probably my all-time favorite, Edward Hopper.
In conclusion: I like finding something of interest in everyday, ordinary things. It's not my intention for my art to impact the world. But it is exciting to connect it to someone and envision a piece where it will eventually live and I always ask a buyer to send me a photo of the piece in their house.
BJ’s work can be found on:
Her website: https://limbicstudio.artspan.com/home
Instagram at: www.instagram.com/bj.beckart
Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/BJBeckArt
Interview conducted and edited by Nancy Martin http://nancyjmartinauthor.com
You can find Tricia’s art on her website
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