Betony Coons
Ordinary Fields: by Betony Coons
opening: August 4th, 5-9pm
artist talk: August 26th, 11 am
On exhibit: August 4th-26th, 2023
About the exhibit:
“Ordinary Fields” is a collection of paintings by Betony Coons exploring midwestern iconography in richly storied environments both personal and collective. Betony’s vibrant, layered paintings are multifaceted and ground you in a sense of place. Betony studied art at the University of Northern Colorado and currently works creating large scale public artworks for children’s museums, hospitals, and libraries. She lives in Greeley, CO where she homeschools her four kids and collaborates on art and music projects with her husband, Tim.
About the artist:
Hello! My name is Betony Coons.
I grew up on an apple orchard in the sandhill prairies of Kansas. My parents unschooled my siblings and me. This meant our days were spent out in the fields, filled with experimental learning and making, gratuitous play, and wild exploration - no matter the season. This show shares some of the “anchors" of those childhood worlds - the landscape of the trees, the skies above us, and the unending fields.
My upbringing is still very much embodied in how I approach art. Out on the orchard, we made things work when they didn’t. We were taught to dream and use the tools we had. We overcame obstacles and made real what we imagined. Consequently, I am a professional dabbler in all mediums with an insatiable curious streak. I am a collector of art techniques and am tenacious in “finding a way".
Throughout my artwork you’ll find themes of innocence, play, vibrant color, connection, sense of place, exploration, rootedness, the natural world, wholesomeness, presence, growth, the passage of time, and the repetition of universal icons.
The process of making art for me is an uncovering - a finding, a gathering, the pulling of threads, and then weaving them back together. It’s play and pilgrimage.