April Art Exhibit at the CNM features Works by Instructor Beth Purdy

Rylee, by Beth Purdy

The April 5 Art exhibit at the Center for New Media features the sabbatical exhibit by art instructor Beth Purdy, entitled "Never Wake a Sleeping Baby."

The exhibit will be open during Art Hop from 5:30 to 8 p.m. and will remain on exhibit throughout the month.

Artist's Statement

As working artist and full-time professor at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Beth Purdy's work spans from traditional oil painting and pastel drawings, to mixed media and experimental techniques.

The sleeping baby series is a mixed media body of work where she used collaged paper and oil paint. In this series Purdy is playing with the idea of flat patterns, contour lines, and rendered skin tones. All of the reference images are quick cell phone photographs that capture babies sleeping in car seats, bassinets, or any other "natural" environment. The photographs came from people in her life: friends, colleagues, former students, and soccer teammates. Her goal was to represent as many different genders and ethnicities as possible, and hopefully illustrate that the precious love for our own babies is universal.

Also on display are five colored pencil studies Purdy completed as part of her Sabbatical in 2023. She attended a two-day workshop, Colored Pencil: Delicate to Dynamic with Kristy Kutch, at the Art Barn School of Art in Valparaiso, Indiana. This small series of drawings are based on photographs she took in her backyard of flowers and insects.