Beth Cavener

Upon reading the prompt, I immediately remembered an artist’s work I had seen in the past and been drawn to. I couldn’t remember the artist’s name at first but it didn’t take long to figure out since her animal sculptures are easily distinguishable. Born on November 25, 1972, the 44-year-old full-time professional studio artist is currently living in Montana. On the About tab in Beth Cavener’s digital portfolio, she states that her sculptures “focus on human psychology, stripped of context and rationalization, and articulated through animal and human forms.” Her goal is “to pry at those uncomfortable, awkward edges between animal and human” and I’d say her work does this rather well. Her most recent exhibition, The Other, opened on July 3, 2017 and aimed to “[address] the strained edges of identity as defined by the presence of another.”

One of her works I particularly enjoy is titled “Tangled Up In You.” Designed with and painted by Alessandro Gallo, it “portrays a human-scale hare suspended in midair at eye-level with the viewer, curling in on itself and sinuously intertwined with the twisting body of a 19 food anaconda snake. The sculpture hangs from the coiled tail of the snake wrapped around a rope attached to the ceiling, while the head of the snake twists around and is latched, mouth wide onto the shoulder of the hare…Embedded within the tattoos, the subtle narrative of the two figures unfolded within the context of a wild, wind-tossed storm of stylized clouds and crashing waves…The combination of the undulating form of the snake, accentuated by the animated design of the tattoos, and the inward spiral of the hare poised in midair evoke a powerful flow of tangled emotion and energy.”