Artists Statement
I am an artist who is based in the Boston area who creates abstract work in acrylic, mixed media and silk screen on paper and wood board. In my work on wood panel and paper, I use paint, markers, ink and printmaking techniques to create overall textures and patterns that evoke hidden structures. My vibrantly colored work evolves from a process of addition and subtraction. I collage complex patterns and add layers on top, often scraping back to reveal the hidden elements below.
I am interested in the unseen: the layers of reality that are hidden from our immediate view, yet form the foundation of everything we perceive. What we can sense is only a small portion of what the universe actually consists of. My work explores what might be beyond our immediate perception.
Selected Exhibitions
2019 Please Touch the Art, Mosesian Center for the Art, Watertown MA (juried)
2015 Dreamweavers, Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville, MA (juried)
2014 Jamaica Plain Open Studios, Boston MA
2012 Waltham Art Windows, Waltham Riverfest, Waltham MA juried)
2010 Paint the River, Waltham Riverfest, Waltham MA
2010 Lexington Open Studios, Lexington MA
2009 Locally Grown, Arlington, MA (3 person show)
2009 OA Green, Gibbs Gallery, Arlington Center for the Arts, Arlington MA (juried)
2007 New Works, Parsons Gallery, Lexington Arts and Crafts Society, Lexington MA
2006 Painters Show, Lexington Arts and Crafts Society, Lexington, MA
1989 Project DMZ, Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, NY (juried
1985 – Terza Mostra Internazionale di Architettura, La Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale), Progetto Venezia: Este. Venice, Italy; Exhibition and Catalog.
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Education
​​​Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO: B.A., Art
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY: B.Arch., Architecture
The New School for Social Research, New York, NY: M.A., Psychology
Salve Regina University, Newport, RI: Institute for the Expressive Arts
Salve Regina University, Newport, RI: CAGS in the Professional Applications of the Expressive and Creative Arts
Bette Frank Leahy currently lives in Waltham MA. She has been a licensed architect in New York State since 1992 and has over 20 years of professional experience in residential and commercial design. She has conducted expressive arts workshops with hospice patients and with cancer patients at Dana Farber Hospital in Boston and has worked with Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. She now devotes herself full time to her art practice.
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