valentine's day The Musician As Artist: Beth Tacular

valentine's day Very often, the need to create does not manifest via singular passion but instead in a variety of artistic endeavors. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Goethe, the list of polymaths throughout history is extensive. In fact, during the Renaissance period, a gentleman was expected to speak several languages, play a musical instrument, write poetry, and generally dabble in arts and sciences of all variety. To translate that for you, it's like every dude was a walking internet machine and shit - damn!

While science and art don't dance together in one person's mind as often as they perhaps used to, it's not at all uncommon for artists to create not only in a wide variety of mediums, but also across a vast array of fields. You know, the actors who have bands on the side, the chefs who write books, and the musicians who also create various forms of visual art.
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Today we'll be taking a look at a small selection of work by Beth Tacular. You may know her as the woman who plays accordion, bass drum, and sings in the North Carolina band Bowerbirds, I knew her first as a friend and visual artist. Beth creates across a variety of mediums: pen and ink drawings, watercolor & gouache paintings on paper, acrylic paintings on wood, and three dimensional art constructed of fibers, clay, wood, found objects and papiér maché. She explains... "I love learning about ecology and about the variety of species on earth, and also about human origins, both cultural and anthropological, and I try to learn from my ancestors who still lived off the land. I am inspired to make art, by plants, animals and fungi I encounter in my life, and that I read about in books. I also want to try to slow civilized human culture's nonstop destruction of what's around us. Most of what I do comes out of that desire, so a lot of my art has an underlying socio-political meaning."

View a selection of Beth Tacular's art, and listen to EAR FARM's favorite Bowerbirds song, after the jump.

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Listen:
"In Our Talons"

Bowerbirds 2008 Tour Dates:
Feb 23 - Duke Coffeehouse with Midtown Dickens, Durham, NC
Feb 24 - Black Cat Backstage w/ Deleted Scenes, Kitty Hawk - Washington DC
Feb 26 - Johnny Brenda’s with Phosphorescent, Philadelphia, PA
Feb 27 - Union Hall with Phosphorescent, Brooklyn, NY
Feb 29 - Mercury Lounge with Phosphorescent, New York, NY
Mar 1 - Iron Horse Music Hall with Phosphorescent, Northampton, MA
Mar 3 - Waldron Arts Center with Phosphorescent, Bloomington, IN
Mar 4 - Schubas, Chicago, IL
Mar 5 - 7th Street Entry with Phosphorescent, Minneapolis, MN
Mar 6 - The Slowdown with Phosphorescent, Omaha, NE
Mar 7 - Jackpot with Phosphorescent, Lawrence, KS
Mar 8 - The Opolis w/ Phosphorescent, Bodies of Water, Norman, OK
Mar 10 - The Cavern w/ Phosphorescent, Bodies of Water, Dallas, TX
Mar 12 - South by Southwest @ TBA, Austin, Texas
Mar 13 - South by Southwest @ TBA, Austin, Texas
Mar 14 - South by Southwest @ TBA, Austin, Texas
Mar 15 - South by Southwest @ TBA, Austin, Texas

Visit Beth Tacular's site where you can contact her about purchasing original works.

Visit Bowerbirds on MySpace.
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Previously:
The Musician As Artist: Daniel Johnston