replicating Beatrice

photo by William Gray Harris

I first heard of Beatrice Wood ("Beato") after buying Chris Casson Madden's 1997 book A Room of Her Own (about women's personal spaces). I fell in love with her and her work from seeing this self-sculpture, shown in the book's photo, below. Such ingenuity of the artist to have her face and hands coming out of the wall!



It's impossible to summarize her - thinker, potter, sculptor, artist, writer, lover. If you don't yet know her, think of this as an introduction only. You can explore the web site embedded in her name, above, to learn about her story and her earthy art.

Beatrice lived to be 105 years old (b. March 3, 1893 - d. March 12,1998).

She was called "The Mama of Dada" because of her participation in the Dada movement in New York, which rejected conventions in art and thought. When asked what Dadaism is, she replied:

"What is Dada is that I know nothing about what is Dada."

I know less than that obviously, but one thing I like about the Dada movement is that it began in protest of WWI and its stupidities. Below is a litho she made for an avant garde journal Blindman's Ball she helped edit. It's a guy thumbing his nose. Maybe "Blindman's Ball" is a good name for the days in which we live, and maybe it's time to start a national "Thumb Your Nose" day. Thumb your nose and say dada.

Beato was influenced by Eastern thought, she was a follower of Krishnamurti - so much so that she followed him to Ojai, California and set up residence there. You can see her in a sari, below. She always wore saris.




photo by William Gray Harris
She said:

"Women are the strength of the world."

And: "to women who have diamonds – it can’t touch the joy of opening a kiln.”

Her pottery was what she spent her last 50 years doing. Incredible! She created her own glaze recipes, making such play with light that the luster becomes ethereal.

“I never meant to become a potter,” Beatrice later offered. “It happened very accidentally… I could sell pottery because when I ran away from home I was without any money. And so I became a potter.”

Drinking vessels like this are hallmarks of Beato's work:



Her art, she said, was not replicating nature, but "replicating Beatrice."
She died just after turning 105, in 1998. She had said:

"In Heaven, I’m going to be married to five wonderful men: Gorbachev, Prince Albert, Bill Moyers, Charlie Chaplin, and Trader Joe.”

I think she would be woman enough for that. I guess she's in training for it, as she's still waiting for Gorbachev, Moyers and "Trader" Joe Coulombe. Can you picture her and her studio apprentices Prince Albert and Charlie in the meantime? "A little more cobalt, Al!" - "Charlie, quit drinking the barium!"