Beth Welch’s “Living Memory” exhibit at the Arts Council’s Firehouse Gallery is turning into as much a technological feat as an artistic expression.
Realizing the pandemic’s potential to keep local patrons away, Welch plans to engage an international audience.
A Facebook livestream, Instagram takeover and drone footage will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the opening, a tour of the show and a conversation with the artist.
The concept for the series began as a tribute to Welch’s mother, who had a severe stroke when Welch was in high school and who now suffers from dementia.
As the collection developed, Welch increasingly explored the universal theme of identity and motherhood: Who is the woman behind the mom? What are her passions, dreams and history?
Many children never know.
The distance between a child’s perception of their mother and the woman’s true self takes the form of a detailed pen-and-ink rendering of a child on cloud-like, translucent vellum paper that overlays a charcoal sketch of a mother figure on a separate sheet.
The intuitive choice of media echoes the nuance and haziness of childhood memories.
“Once you have a child, everything is focused on that child, and you lose so much of your identity,” says Welch, the mother of a 2-year-old son. “By placing the mothers in the background, I hope ‘Living Memory’ brings them to the foreground of the conversation.”
At age 28, Welch is a collage of modern mom and Old World master.
She has studied classical technique in Italy, mastered media ranging from photography and oils to charcoal and pen-and-ink, won the best-in-show and juried an exhibit at the Dallas Metro Arts Contemporary Gallery, recorded mother/artist podcasts, and mentored women artists.
The Monroe native jumpstarted her career by declaring herself an artist at age 5. She drew on any surface that wouldn’t land her in time-out. She has yet to stop.
By high school, art already meant more than finishing a masterpiece.
“It has been the way I process all things in life,” she explains. “There’s a definite quiet that your mind gets to whenever you’re making something from nothing on the paper.”
Despite the high-tech methods used to create one of the gallery’s most virtually accessible exhibits, that sense of calm pervades the show.
“[The pieces] don’t scream from across the room. They’re not big and red and naked,” she explains. “They are layered and subtle—almost like whispers.”
But Welch hopes those whispers get families talking. That’s why she titles each piece with a question. An interactive board at the exhibition also encourages the community to contribute questions they’d like to be answered by the women in their lives—and serve as a reminder to ask those questions while we still can.
“Living Memory” will be on display at the Arts Council’s Firehouse Gallery Feb. 1-26. The opening is scheduled for Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. For more information, visit
bethwelchart.com. And turn to page 78 of this magazine to find a print from Welch.
This article was originally published in the January 2021 issue of 225 magazine.
