Beth Bojarski

Beth Bojarski, who was trained as a commercial illustrator, paints solely on repurposed wood—including tree stumps, barn doors, and antique furniture remains—because she is attracted to its durability and imperfections. Her paintings are often irregularly shaped, and are sometimes accompanied by handmade frames or assembled elements. Bojarski’s subjects are fantastical figures with exaggerated proportions, sometimes based on members of her own family. She begins each of her paintings with an improvisational exercise in response to the wood’s surface: “In the blotches of color applied, I may see an eye or mouth’s shape that I can pull out of the abstract and begin defining,” she says.