Artist Spotlight: Bekah Worley
Meet Bekah Worley, an illustration artist based in Minnesota. A self-taught artist with a focus on color and big, folk-inspired forms typically using acrylic on found frames or objects and wood panel.
1. How did you become an artist? Who or what have been your biggest influences?
"I have always loved making all kinds of things, but was never quite ready to fully throw myself into art until I was almost 40. When I started out, I was DIY screen printing and sewing and making little watercolors and block prints. Each thing I tried was more fun than the last, and I just kept following that thread and sharing my work as I went. Then I stumbled onto fluid acrylics and the whole world opened up. I'm fully self taught, and have a great love for amateur art of any kind, in addition to traditional folk art and outsider art. I'm also very inspired by textile and pottery. It's just so cool to me that humans have been making marks and shapes for the love of beauty since the beginning of time."
2. What is a fun or unexpected fact about yourself that the audience may not know?
"I don't know how fun or surprising this is, but I was homeschooled through the 6th grade and had very little access to tv growing up. I always felt like a giant nerd around people who I thought of as "normal" but now I see the experience as a huge gift to my creative self."
3. Can you walk us through your creative process - from rituals or routines to ideas to finished pieces.
"My days do vary, but I need a loose structure for my mental health, so I keep pretty regular studio hours. I'm here most weekdays from at least 10ish to 4 or 5ish. Mornings are for wandering the studio and checking in with all my projects, see what's calling to me for the day or if any new ideas spark. I will usually have several things going at once, and some might sit dormant for weeks or even eventually be abandoned, so I like to kind of remind myself what's on the table each day. Literally I'm just walking around looking at stuff, but it's a big necessary step. I like a puttery sort-of start to the day, so after checking in with things, I might do a little admin, answer emails, etc, till lunch. The real hands on stuff only happens in the afternoon, which is something I can't control. I've tried to be different and I can’t!
I don't do much in the way of planning: my preferred way to start a piece is choosing a blank canvas and just kind of start. I use almost exclusively vintage-sourced frames, and the size, shape, and texture often sort of inform the painting, so I like to feel my way through a piece. I'll work on it until it seems like it's there, often painting over colors until the palette feels right to me."
4. If you could live inside one of your artworks for a day, which would you choose?
"Decoy on Green"
5. What has been the most difficult part of becoming an artist? Based on those challenges, what is one thing you would tell your past self?
"Trusting myself. If I had figured that out sooner, I would have started my art career much earlier and maybe even gone to art school straight out of high school, but I honestly have no regrets. The path that I took has given me a perspective I never would have found otherwise, and I kind of treasure that. So I think the only thing I would tell past me is that you'll get there and you won't believe how much it will be worth it."
6. Tell us about the pieces you're showing in Wallpaper Collab Show - what inspired them? How does the idea that art is for everyone influence your work as an artist?
"The artist I was paired with for the Wallpaper Collab Show is Racheal Jackson. I love Racheal and her work, so I was pretty excited to use her wallpaper design as a jumping off point. This show feels like a call and response to me, so my works are a response to Racheal's bold shapes and colors. Art IS for everyone, and that idea is foundational to my approach. Art is so much bigger than what we tend to think of as the art world. To me, the whole point of art is connection. I believe in art that is open and honest and accessible."
7. If you could spend a month learning anything, what would it be and why?
"I loooove learning new crafts and mediums. Natural dyes or basket weaving would be so interesting. It's always fascinating to me how interacting with a new medium or skill can give a new perspective to my normal art practice when I come back to it."
