BETHANY ALTSCHWAGER​

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Issue 9

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Bethany Altschwager is an artist, licensed creative arts therapist, and educator born in Connecticut, working in New York, and living in New Jersey. In her formative years, she fell in love with the magic of light and chemistry in the photographic darkroom to create images of new worlds through close-up macros, extreme contrast, and double exposure. Her work now utilizes digital techniques that bridge the disciplines of art, technology, and psychotherapy.

 

​About the Art:

 

"Images in my Street Layers series are digital collages of photographs of graffiti and textures I find traveling across New York City. I pull images from different neighborhoods and even times, experimenting with how they meld together. On the surface, the titles appear to be plausible cross streets in New York neighborhoods. In reality, the titles represent new, liminal spaces that do not exist in physical reality. For me, these images represent the confluence of time and space. Preserving images of that which, by its nature, will be washed away, painted over, reconstructed, repaired, or torn down highlights the tension between holding on and letting go. Images in these layers break apart so they can come back together in new configurations. My work encapsulates the tension between preservation and the ephemeral, celebrating the beauty of decay and renewal."

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