Beth Hammack

Relationships are as important in art as they are in life. It is in the connections that form relationships where one finds beauty and meaning. Our most primal human relationship begins before we are born, making it intense and enduring. As we know, the strength and degree of happiness found in the mother-child relationship affects us all of our lives. In fact, that relationship will be universally celebrated this Sunday. Similarly, it is the relationship of line, shape, texture, form, color, and value in a painting that will illicit our initial response and determine our degree of attachment to a particular work...

Beth Hammack, "OK-OK!," 2021, Acrylic on Canvas, 48 x 72 in., $3,800

It was in 1979 that I had my first encounter with an art calendar. At that time Ben Pickard lived in Crown Heights. His gallery was in the basement of his home. I lived close by and would visit him at least once a month, enthralled by the stories he would tell me about his stable of artists and art. So naturally, I turned to him to help me find art to put in my office at the University of Oklahoma, where I had gotten my first job after receiving my Ph.D. Of course, Ben had several paintings and prints I loved, but could not begin to afford. Then he pulled out this large calendar of signed prints of contemporary artists. It was wonderful!...

Are we not all reeling from current events? Personally, I am reeling from what I call America’s 2020 Triple Threat: the global pandemic; the resultant economic crisis; and the resurgence of violence due to systemic racial and social injustice. This Triple Threat is not going to just disappear. We will have to collectively work through it. This is a time when we all need go beyond ourselves in the search for "the better angels of our nature." As always, I find truth, understanding and hope, my better angels, in art. My goal as the owner of an art gallery has always been to make art in all its forms easily available to a growing audience. To maintain our goals in a time of turbulent change requires the resilience and creativity to make changes in how we reach our goals.

About seventeen years ago, Cynthia Wolf and I conspired to start a monthly gallery walk. We planned to host the walk on the first Friday of every month. Cynthia Wolf owned the Adelante Studio at 3001A Paseo. She had lived in San Antonio and was very familiar with its River Walk. Through my travels, I knew that in major cities all over the world, groups of artists and galleries would organize at least one event a month to celebrate the arts.

Like you, these past few weeks, I have sat in countless Zoom conferences trying to make sense of all the recent challenges. We sit together apart discussing survival strategies and attempting to reinvent a relatively unknown future. Most of my Board and Committee appointments are with arts and educational institutions. Both of those sectors are extremely vulnerable to physical and economic uncertainty and change...

JRB Art at The Elms is featuring Beth Hammack and Andy Mattern in two solo exhibitions. Showing concurrently will be “Sky”, a group landscape show with Karl Brenner, Robert Schneider, and Janis Krendick. The exhibitions open with an evening reception from 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. on Friday, May 5^th, during the Paseo’s First Friday Gallery Walk. The exhibit can be seen during the Paseo Arts Festival Memorial Day Weekend and will close Monday, May 29^th.