While I see the benefits of reinventing myself frequently; in northern New Mexico I need only to awaken each morning to the blessings of a land that reinvents itself daily and throughout the hours of the day and evening. My paintings are as changeable as the weather here. The constants seem to be portraiture and the land and skyscapes; an abiding love of dirt hues, deep blues, turquoise and odd greens; and a need to mix things up with spontaneous brushwork and tight rendering. I love working with pure pigment and the receptive surface of marble dust and rabbit skin glue. Some other hats I have worn are as a ceramicist, cartographer and graphic designer. I attended CCA in Oakland and the University of Hawaii. I feel most privileged to have spent time as an apprentice to Jean Charlot in Hawaii. He was born in Paris and studied in the formal academies before moving to Mexico City with his Mexican mother to join that wildly creative bunch in the ‘20s-early ‘30s; working on murals among Rivera, Orozco and Siquieros. I assisted him on his final fresco and later sculptural work.
Beth Kiyosaki