Artist Biography - Beka Wueste
Beka Wueste is an award-winning artist who exhibits her visual work frequently in regional and national shows. She is also a published author whose recent novel, “The Unsent Letters of Lucy Prior,” earned praise as a “deeply introspective and emotionally resonant novel.” (-Kirkus Reviews)
Born in Texas and raised in Virginia, Beka earned a B.A. in art history from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA, and an M.A. in art history from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.
An enthusiastic traveler, avid reader of books, and collector of music on vinyl, Beka lives with her husband and their rescue Shiba Inu in Northern Virginia.
Artist Statement
Working primarily in 2-D media—including drawing, painting, calligraphy, and collage—I explore the interplay of texture, color, and light, in order to elicit heightened emotional reactions.
I am particularly interested in themes of memory, mortality, nature, and dreams. I believe art has the power to inject positivity into the lives of viewers, but also hope that my work can challenge the audience to question their perceptions of reality and the present, finding the fantastic in everyday life.
Artist Biography – Cara Feys
Since receiving her first set of acrylics at age 12, Cara has been teaching herself to paint with an eye to capturing the bright colors and forms that have always piqued her interest. As a young artist, she loved how the Impressionists used light, color, and quick brushstrokes to convey just the right amount of visual information to feel like one could step right into their world. Cara’s early paintings sought to emulate that style. As her practice grew, she felt drawn to painting with greater detail, learning to see the contrasts and edges that bring a scene to more realistic life.
Once Cara discovered oils and learned how they could work their magic, creating more luminosity and depth than the acrylics she had grown up on, she only worked only in oils for many years. Now based in the Fredericksburg area, Cara has moved back to acrylics as a tool to work more quickly in the short spurts that her schedule allows. The new challenge she is exploring is how to use acrylics to create a similar sense of luminosity as oils.
Cara’s art education has been primarily through self-taught trial and error, with some college level art and design coursework. Cara has exhibited her paintings in numerous juried shows at local Fredericksburg galleries and won several awards. Her more recent body of work is capturing memories of travel, focusing on the energy of human activity contrasted with the power and beauty of nature.
A Botanical Point of View – Leaning In and Leaning Out
It started with a lily in my mom’s garden, leaning in to look at all the wondrous detail that can’t be seen from afar, and a question… what would it look like if I could paint it larger than life to explore all the detail in a way that’s not possible on a smaller scale? I became enticed by the challenge of capturing flowers and plants from an ant’s eye view. I wanted to create that feeling of making something so big and eye catching that the viewer won’t walk by a flower or a plant the same way again – maybe even wanting to get down on the ground and lean in to look at details they’ve never noticed before. Is there not some kind of reverence, some conversation that occurs between human and nature when we choose to pay attention?
With the trees I paint, there is so much detail that it’s necessary to lean out and see the beauty of how the leaves interplay with one another, the sunlight shining through, and how the branches twist and turn like human form. I’ve always found trees to be mysterious. Perhaps they are knowing creatures that look down on human scale and lifetime with pity for our limited view.
