BETSY BOYLE'S "RESPITE"

There is a quiet pause in girlhood on the cusp of adolescence. -BB

Knives, beds, a suitcase, a door, Sears gold-rimmed furniture, personal histories, things lost in time. In Betsy Boyle's new collection, "Respite", these things seem to be in limbo, lying in wait to be of use once again. Longing and lonliness. The tones
are rich in color, deep hued greens and red populate a diminishing urban landscape. There are moments of wonder when there are people in the photographs, but it is in the absence of peoplewhich makes the humanity of her work that much stronger. There is a struggle between innocence and adolescence where choice has defined a need to keep from reaching out towards memory, and one's ability to move on into adulthood. Betsy's is a voice which has a deep sense of her own past and is looking for answers in some of the emptiness left in the cobwebs of her childhood memories. What she finds is magic in the inbetween spaces of life. At her best Boyle is an anthropologist of the self, looking within to see herself from the outside.
-John Longstocking

A Brief Interview

John Longstocking: At what point did you know photography was the medium for your art?

Betsy Boyle: I was first drawn to take pictures around the age of 14 or 15, not from any particular images that I canremember, more from books.  I had recently read Marilynne Robinson's book Housekeeping and it influenced me to try to recreate some of the emotions held in the narrative with my camera. I was most intrigued by the character, Sylvie. Anyway, the story takes place in a small town in Idaho where two sisters, Ruth and Lucille, have lost their mother to suicide and their Aunt Sylvie arrives to care for them; only, Sylvie has been a transient until now, riding the rails, and she is unsure of what it means to be rooted down. Her idea of housekeeping is to save everything, newspapers, empty jars and such. Ruthie longs for her mother and seeks her presence throughout the book - I was a moody teen and drawn to these themes of longing and loss.

I remember going to the train tracks about a mile from where we lived in suburban Petaluma. I had brought my Instamatic camera and tried to capture somethings I had drawn from the book; people longing and restless for a connection to the mother that had abandoned them? a ruthless isolation?  I'm not sure exactly.  It was a feeling rather than an image.  When I got the pictures back they were just images of my little brother sitting on box cars and train tracks converging in the distance. I didn't capture the feeling of longing then but have been seeking it in various forms in my photography ever since. My family still teases me sometimes about the very dramatic "transient series" that I was working on in high school.

I didn't own a "real" camera until I was about 20 and had to talk my way into the beginning black & white photo class since I wasn't an art major. For several years I had been thinking visually though, and since I had started with the Instamatic Kodak using 126 film, I was used to square images taken with a fixed lens (they took a cartridge rather than roll of film that has been discontinued, do you remember these?)  When I was in photography class I was always struggling against the rectangle. Later, I bought a medium format camera to take square negatives (6x6cm) so it feels more natural.

JL: Was "Respite" there as a theme when you took the photographs or did you take the photographs with your theme in mind? When was the point when you knew you
had a show?

BB: There are all sorts of things that I will be drawn to photograph over and over, I notice when I look at my contact sheets that there are many of these types of images/themes:

-kiddy pools
-hotels/hotel signs
-girlhood
-adolescence
-questioning fate/fortune telling
-the idea of leaving
-longing, still
-older cars
-beds
-old fabric/old wallpaper
-flowers (I don't usually print these though, but I notice that I have tons of flower shots! It makes me feel a bit cheesy.)

The pictures that make up the show "Respite" are different images that I have collected since around 2000, and they came together afterwards into a body of work. 

Objects seem to be filled with meaning for me that other people may or may not see as well.  Especially clothing and beds; they seem to be a kind of
replacement for a person in some of the images.  I just printed an image of these little balled up socks next to a slept-in bed, I am in love with it right now! It makes me feel so tender towards my friend Melissa whose socks they are! Not surprisingly it is very difficult for me to throw anything away since every object and I have a "relationship".

People will tell me that my art is melancholy, but I often find it quite funny. 

JL: You do all your own developing. Is there a point for you where the picture takes its final shape? Is it in the developing process or in the taking of the
picture? Both. Neither.

BB: I do print myself, partially from expense and also because I just like the process.  In color everyone uses processors now and it is not done by hand like I first learned to in 1993.  So I still control the exposure, and then load it into the processor for the
development.  I am kind of rusty at printing right now since I couldn't afford to photo paper and lab rental for a long time. Color balancing is always a challenge, which I mostly enjoy except for when I am trying to balance skin tones. I tend to print my
images on the cooler side; I prefer this, although perhaps it serves to emphasize the melancholia.

JL: For me there is a strong sense of longing in "Respite", specifically a longing of childhood and the places and things of that time left behind. Can you discuss this theme a little more and where this comes from in your work?

BB: Of course I had no idea at the time that loss would become a theme in my own life; in my 20's my boyfriend Gary suddenly was diagnosed with acute leukemia after his symptoms were ignored by doctors who thought he was stressed from his exams.  He and I had been together for about a year at that point. He died a couple of years later after a lot of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.  We had lived together and I was his caregiver; I still don't know anyone as young who was in this kind of situation. I was 23-26. The people I have met during and since were usually older and had been married and this was the final test of their relationships.

Betsy Boyle's work can be seen at:

what:  "Respite"  photography by Betsy Boyle
        c-prints (aka color photographs handprinted
from negatives)

when:  March 1-31, 2008
         reception: thursday, March 27th 6-8

where:  Albina Press
        4637 n. albina avenue
        Portland, OR  97217

In the cozy room:  Paintings by Ann Wilberton, Kim Leijon, and Betsy Boyle

-John Longstocking

Comments

[Andrea]

Thanks for reviewing this show. I went to see the work and thought it was one of the best cafe shows I have seen; the work could be in a gallery. Hope John Longstocking will continue to do more detailed art reviews like this one.

Betsy is amazing!