Beth Henderson combines her former experience as a Maine educator with her current avocation as an artist. At seven and eight years of age, she built birdhouses from discarded orange crates and sketched backyard birds with colored pencils. "In high school," she says, "I often detoured enviously by the art room, wishing that my academic curriculum would allow me to take art classes. I loved the smell of oils and coveted the art kids’engagement with their work as opposed to my passive student role as a listener."

Beth’s sculptures, fashioned from found materials that range from burdock to vacuum cleaner parts, are whimsical in nature. They were created during the winter months, when outdoor work on stone becomes impossible, and derive from thirty years spent in the company of school kids of all ages.

However, stone and wood remain Beth’s passion. Her process and approach for carving is driven both by the character of each stone and also by her intentions for its outcome. "It definitely becomes an ongoing conversation between the stone and me about our combined potential.The challenge, "as with kids," she believes, "is to discover, nurture, and help release this energy stuff." Alabaster, Maine limestone, and marble are her chosen varieties of stone. "Alabaster, while fragile and cranky in personality, ultimately hold great joy and beauty."

In recent months, Beth’s sculptures have been juried into the Gallery for Social and Political Art on Boylston Street in Boston, the annual juried show at Hartford Artworks, the Arts Affair for Copley Square in Boston, the Concord (MA) Art Association, and the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts juried exhibits at the Slater Museum in Norwich, the Mystic Art Association, and the Artwell Gallery in Torrington.

She lives and works at the Pumpkin Hill Studios in Ashford, where visitors are invited to view her work.

Click on the image above to see more of her work on exhibit.

Babbidge Library, Gallery on the Plaza
Curator: David Kapp