For regional artist, little things mean a lot

When Beverly DeMotte and her husband, Dwayne, flew to Cozumel, Mexico, in mid-January for a visit, she took along her traveling art kit hoping to find some creative inspiration on the semi-tropical island off the coast of Yucatan. But all she got was the vista of a flat, tree-covered island.
Nonplussed by what she saw, she began wondering what she would do to find something in the way of artistic stimulation.
“Everyone does palm trees, sandy beaches and ocean waves crashing against the shore,” said DeMotte, a resident of Uniontown.
That’s when inspiration fell from the sky — literally. It landed at her feet in the form of a cocoa seed from a nearby tree.
“When my eyes focused downward, I saw the abundance of nature’s details,” she said. “At first, it was the details of the tiniest seashells and the bits and pieces of coral that stood out. The repetitive patterns of the fallen semillas de coco (coco seeds) and the backs of the many iguanas added to my curiosity. At that point, my sketches took on the patterns, details and colors that are now the ‘Minutia of Cozumel.'”
Back home in early spring, DeMotte had just finished her first “Minutia” series but still had enough energy left to make more art. Nearing the end of the day, she went outside her home in early April and began taking detailed photos of things in the garden.
With only 20 minutes of daylight remaining, she managed to get 24 photos before pouring rain and darkness set in. She spent the rest of the evening lightly sketching out new mini-compositions as part of her “Minutia of New Life” series.
From 7-9 p.m. on Friday, July 21, an exhibit of 26 of her diminutive 2.5-inch-by-3.5-inch framed and matted watercolors in the “Minutia” series will open at the Artbeat Gallery, located at 52 E. High Street in Waynesburg, with a reception that will be free and open to the public.
Light refreshments will be served, and the exhibit will remain up through Aug. 25. All of the works will be available for purchase.
“The art pieces are baseball card size to go along with the concept of minutia,” DeMotte said. “Seventeen of the 26 watercolors were inspired by my visit to Cozumel; the others are sparked by things I found in my garden.”
All of the paintings are described as whimsical reinterpretations of nature. In her “New Life” series, for instance, patterns are designed by blending the shapes, colors and textures of different pieces and parts of plants.
“I make art for the sake of art, which is very personal to me,” she said. “What I felt when making the ‘Minutia’ series was great joy and fun. The works are like mini-parties in a painting. They’re so joyful.”
The artist said that the word ‘Minutia’ is usually thought of as small and trivial details, but small but not trivial is the case in the “World of Minutia exhibit,” the “next big thing” at Artbeat.
The works defy the trivial aspect by creatively reinterpreting frequently overlooked details that abound in our daily lives. Not only do these expressive mini-works echo back to their origin of seemingly unimportant details, each tells its own story.
“A big statement, big scene or big idea isn’t always the answer,” DeMotte claims. “Sometimes an open attitude toward the ‘World of Minutia’ is all we really need.”
Born in Meadville, DeMotte graduated from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and has multiple master degree equivalencies from her studies at Penn State University, Gannon University, California University of Pennsylvania, Touchstone Center for Crafts and the Carnegie Museum of Art.
For 34 years, she was the only art teacher at Uniontown Area High School, where she taught everything from drawing and sculpture to printmaking and ceramics.
“I tried to keep the program flexible, and to teach each subject I had to practice in the various media,” she said.
In 1979, three years after she first started teaching for the school district, she was asked to help with the school’s theater productions doing mostly set design. It was an endeavor that lasted until she retired in 2010.
“The largest drop I remember making was a 12-by-40-foot scene of the Pacific Ocean that ran the width of the stage for a production of ‘South Pacific,'” she said.
In addition to sponsoring an active after-school art club in Uniontown, she worked two years at Waynesburg University, supervising senior art student teachers. She is also a former co-director and board member of Scholastic Art and Writing Awards of Southwest Pennsylvania, advisor and occasional instructor for the Uniontown Arts Fellowship and Phoenix Arts Center and a life-long advocate for the arts.
Regionally, she has exhibited her art in a Greensburg Art Club show at the Green Gate Mall, at the West Overton Museums in Scottdale, at the country club and Fayette County Courthouse Library in Uniontown and at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington.
Currently, DeMotte is working on another “Minutia” series based on objects she has seen at Ohiopyle.
“On Memorial Day, my husband and I went up to Ohiopyle, and I snapped away on my camera taking photos of little things I found,” she said. “I’m hoping to have their paintings finished by late August or early September for sale at Backyard Gardens Market.”
For more information, call 724-833-9058 or visit www.artbeat-gallery.com.