Portrait of Beth Laroche

[This is the first of a semi-regular post I'm excited to begin.  I want to interview artists-- many of them etsy sellers-- about their process, materials, and the things that inspire them.  When I read interviews with artists, I'm always dying to know things that are never asked- some practical, some obnoxiously exhaustive, some slightly intrusive, some zany... I think you'll find those things here.]

 

 

I first discovered Beth Laroche on etsy by clicking an endless stream of ‘favorites’ until I became so removed from the original etsy seller I was first curious about that I had no idea where I was or who’s favorites I was now looking at.  I noticed Beth’s icon, clicked on her store, and was delighted with my new find.  At first glance, Beth’s shop has an edgy 20th century-modern, rock legend style  and a youthful charm.   Her detail to the folds and wrinkles of her figures’ clothing, combined with their vibrant color and pattern, pop off the page.

 

    

 

I also love the youthfulness and imagination in her work. The figures in her drawings, usually done in colored pencil with touches of acrylic paint, are often stuck in precarious situations: from being carried away by birds, trapped in a net, strung up with string like a marionette, to intertwining with a zebra. In their more leisurely moments they seem to enjoy skate boarding and hanging out in groups looking devastatingly cool.

 

 

Beth opened her etsy shop in April 2008 and it continues to evolve.  She recently added some tiny (4 x 4-ish), incredibly charming white-framed floral drawings(pictured at very top of entry) and I’m excited to see what’s next.  I had to ask her for an interview.  [Don't forget to click the above etsy link to see more of her work!]

 

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Your current job(s):

I’m a temp right now…boring, boring office work. but i just got a raise!

Art mediums:

currently i work with pencils and acrylic paint on paper.

Place of origin:

Berlin, New Hampshire.

Style icons?

no one person comes to mind as a style icon..i take in a lot from different things i see. I really like old fashioned things-antiques, lace doilies, i appreciate how clothing styles  were much more formal in the older times. I like boys 1940s school uniforms-or my image of what a boy’s 1940s school uniform would be..shorts with socks and boots with sweaters that have patches on the elbow! Films inspire me very much. David Lynch films as well as Wes Anderson’s are so visually pleasing! Every scene is flawless and could be a nice painting.  ”picnic at hanging rock” and “dreams” (Kurosawa) are two others films that come to mind. 

 e-  ”So, this is one of your favorite possessions.  What is it?”

b -”i recently bought it at an antique store..very interesting thing-it’s carved in wood and then painted-artist unknown but they carved in: “many happy trails-Roy Rogers & Trigger”"

If you could throw a party and invite anyone who ever existed past 
or present, who would be there?  And if any musician that ever 
existed past or present could perform... who?

Bill Hicks, Bob Dylan, David Byrne, Conan O’Brien, Julia Child, & Quentin Tarantino….and they can all bring one guest.

What art supplies, brands, or tools do you absolutely love to 
make art with? 

I don’t have any specific brands that I prefer. I just like harder lead pencils and I  like my paper to be slightly off white.

Where is your workspace and what are the most important things in it? 

my workspace is my coffee table! and my cats are often in my workspace and they are important.

b – “This is me in my living room/studio (and my cat murray is in the corner)”

System of organization for materials and past work:

I keep my pencils and paintbrushes handy in a cup on my table..I keep my past work  in my portfolio. I finally started to keep my torn out magazine pages in a tupperware  container since I often re-use images from them!

I really love your color palette, patterns, and body shapes...how do you 
conceptualize your drawings, and how do they develop on the page?  

thanks! I always draw from magazine images. I buy a lot of fashion/culture magazines,  flip through them, and tear out images that look fun to draw-I never plan out my drawings- They always begin with one image and then grow from there.

There is an eye-catching emphasis on the clothing colors and 
patterns the figures wear in your drawings.  Do you consider 
any of your drawings to be fashion illustrations?  Are you 
influenced by the fashion industry or observing street fashions? 

I don’t consider my drawings to be fashion illustrations. Some of my older drawings maybe,  but while I still get the majority of my images from fashion magazines I think my newer  work is more about piecing the images into an interesting composition. It’s almost like  collage in that I sometimes take legs from one figure and pair them with a torso from  another-and add someone else’s head! I like composing my drawings this way because It  helps to make the figures more my own as well as distorting them a bit-which I like. I  also like run on sentences.

Your shop is new to etsy, what challenges you as a new seller?  

There is a lot I have to learn as far as promoting and improving my etsy shop.  I would like to get a new digital camera in the near future to help out with the photos  of my work..but i haven’t had any huge challenges at this point. I’m just so happy that  people are actually adding me to their favorites! Etsy is fun-I’m so pleased to have sold  some stuff!

You've recently listed some very small, framed floral designs 
that add new aesthetic and price dimensions to your shop-- as 
most of your previously listed work featured larger, original 
drawings of people/figures.  Can you give shop admirers any 
clues to how your shop's focus or range might develop this year?

I think the reason for the small floral drawings is that my larger drawings are so tedious  that some nights I just don’t feel like buckling down to work that way- I wanted to make  some smaller drawings that I actually finish in one night. they are for fun. I’m hoping to  create some more small to medium sized drawings in the $20-$50 range. I recently went  antiquing and found some nice little frames with some character-so right now i’m working on  filling those up.

e- “And this is another of your favorite belongings?”

b- “It’s a painting my boyfriend bought at the salvation army last year-signed “M.A. Paquet” 

What other artists have influenced your work?

I‘m not sure what has directly influenced my artwork, but there are so many people/things  that inspire me-i admire people who have very time consuming hobbies. people that build model  ships and trains, make miniatures, make their own fly fishing lures-anything that involves a  lot of detail. that said, here are artists that I enjoy: Joseph Cornell, Henri Rousseau,  Grandma Moses, Rufino Tamayo, Henry Darger, Fransisco Goya, Hieronymus Bosch, Paul Gauguin,  R.B. Kitaj, Toulouse-Lautrec, Frida Kahlo, Jockum Nordstrom, Esther Pearl Watson, Greg Mamczak,  Julianna Swaney, Giles LaRoche (my uncle!), Larissa Bates, Keith Shore, Drew Beckmeyer, Kevin  Christy, Michelle Hailey etc. etc. etc. and a lot of medieval artists. 

e – “Can you show us new stuff you’re working on?”

b – “Here is a photo of my latest drawing which is still in progress…”

Dream day:

my perfect day would be spent driving through small towns  I’ve never been to before-and of course getting out of the car and exploring.

Recommended Bookmarks:   

one that I’ve been going to forever is www.artchive.com and i love fecalface.com and of course etsy, illustration mundo, streetpeeper.com is fun too..

If you only had three colors to draw/paint in for the rest of your 
life which three would you choose?

…some form of off white, terra cotta, and powder blue.

Where can admirers find you? 

www.bethlaroche.com and my etsy shop!