Written by Carrie Beth Wallace
Images by Travis Dodd
This Spring at the Bo Bartlett Center in Uptown Columbus, there is a new exhibition curated by Oregon native and encaustic artist Betsy Eby. Women of the Pacific Northwest opened in mid-January and will celebrate its public opening with an Artist Panel Discussion on February 5th at 5:30PM with an opening reception to immediately follow.
Eby is known as an artist for her delicate and organic compositions that explore the space between the worlds of sight and sound. Originally from the Pacific Northwest herself, Eby curated this exhibition to showcase fellow women artists from the region and bring a new experience to Bartlett Center visitors by bringing work from her native region to the South.
Read on to learn about her motivation behind the curation of Women of the Pacific Northwest, and why she believes encountering art from different places is essential to the human experience.

Q: What inspired you to curate Women of the Pacific Northwest?
A: I had this idea about five or six years ago, during the height of the Me Too Movement. I wasn't sleeping well at that point in my life, and I was up in the middle of the night and it dawned on me that I have a platform, and that’s through The Center. I realized I knew a bunch of amazing women who don't get the recognition they deserve. Especially because of being so remote in the Pacific Northwest. People don't really think about that part of the world.
So I thought “What if I did a show?" And it just came to me, Women of the Pacific Northwest. I started working on it, and then the pandemic happened, and it slowed it down. By then, I had a core group of a number of people. I knew I wanted to open it up so that I was including other voices as well. Over time, the exhibition grew to encompass the work of 14 women.
Q: What mediums are represented in the exhibition?
A: It’s a bit of everything, really. There are works made of glass, wire, there’s some metalworking, and paintings as well.
I think the one representational artist you'll see is Victoria Adams. She does landscapes, but all the rest is non-objective. So it’s abstract. But it's abstract, but it's accessible in the terms that it's not so highly-conceptual without the material having tangibility that it leaves you cold.
It's exciting, it's tactile. Most of the work has a real tactile nature to it. That was very important to me personally. But also, with all of these women, it's really a story of women who are working in the studio every day and who have mastered their craft with a capital C, not a K. These women are masters of their craft, along with their concept, and they all have the rigorous intelligence that comes from a good practice. I think that is what produces some of the finest artists in history.

Q: What else shaped your desire to build this particular exhibition?
A: Aside from the work, I also thought what a great opportunity to not share stories. To not tell stories, but to show stories. This exhibition explores how environment shapes us, because as a North Westerner living in the South, you know, I often feel like I'm on an extended anthropology field trip.
Q: (laughing) I bet!
A: I’m serious. When I first got here, I said, “Okay, I'll give it three years. We're gonna build The Center and we'll see Bo’s parents through.” It’s been 12, maybe 13 years now, and here I am. But that feeling of still being on an extended anthropology field trip really ever goes away from me. I don't feel at one with Southern culture, but it's fascinating and there are so many things I've learned about it – learned from it.
So as I started working on Women of the Pacific Northwest I thought, “You know, what art looks like here is so different than what art looks like in other parts of the country.”
Q: What a fascinating point.
A: I think that to understand a place you have to really, fully understand the art. In this climate right now of sort of siloed regionalism, what a great opportunity to bring the visual interpretation of a place and share it with another place.

Q: This has powerful implications. What else motivated your choices to bring this exhibition to life at The Center?
For me, art is communication. Artists don't necessarily sit in our studio and make work that is a one-sided deal. Art is complete when somebody else has an experience with it. There’s a certain reciprocity, and we're fed by our environment. We're fed by creating art, and then we want to share it with the world. I found this was a great opportunity to share how these artists’ relationship to a different part of the country could be experienced by people in this part of the country.
Q: How did you select the 14 women that are portrayed? This exhibition is unlike anything The Center has had on display previously.
Many of these women are my friends, and I respect all of them for their pursuits and their lives. These women live in commitment to their pursuits.
Originally, there were three artists that immediately came to mind. Then I opened it up to include artists beyond the Seattle region. I spent my adulthood in Seattle until moving here, but I wanted to bring different stories from Oregon as well. I’m from Oregon originally, so it’s a very formative place for me and the art is incredible.

Q: Will this exhibition be a sort of reunion for you in a way? Clearly, each of these women that have made an impact on you.
A: I certainly feel like we've all come up together. What I respect about all their work is knowing them and knowing their stories and the acts of sublimation they represent. Sublimation in terms of having a story, and having having understanding how environment affect artists. That's why I wrote the essay for the exhibition notes that delves deep back into the history of the Pacific Northwest. It made the argument of what the Pacific Northwest aesthetic sprung from. You can detect a lot of those qualities within these artists. Some more than others for sure, but I think what's interesting. They all have very different stories. Each of these 14 women come from different places, but they all either have land in the Pacific Northwest or they're from there originally.
Q: How have the artists received the exhibition so far? Are they identifying with the intention behind this exploration of bringing one region’s art to another?
A: I think so. For example, my friend Ann Gardner, who was born and raised in Oregon as well, read the exhibition essay and said, “Oh my God, Betsy. You're more Pacific Northwest than anybody!” The information resonated with her deeply, and it was encouraging to get her thoughts.
My family origins in the Pacific Northwest go way back, so I wanted to explore how we acculturate throughout life. We are born somewhere and then we move to another place because we want to welcome the attributes of it into our lives. A lot of these artists did just that decades ago. I was hatched in the Pacific Northwest myself, so it's in my DNA, but then those stories then get sublimated through the practice of your medium and the geographic changes that come with life. That experience is different for everyone, and really something that gripped my attention when curating this show. I wanted to know how these pieces from Pacific Northwest artists would interact with the people in Columbus.

Q: How did that play out in the process of curating Women of the Pacific Northwest?
A: I was really curious with all of these artists. I kept finding myself asking lots of questions like what was the moment of your childhood that gave you license to be an artist? Or, what was the moment in your childhood or in your life that was the ‘aha’ experience that made you curious about creating. And then, what was the ‘aha’ experience that gave you license to move that curiosity into a deeper practice?
I met with the majority of the artists in their studios, and we talked through all of those questions. In the curator's notes at the end of my essay, you can read a little bit of those personal conversations and the nuggets they shared with me.
Q: How has this exhibition impacted you personally? What else do you hope people take away from their interaction with Women of the Pacific Northwest?
I think that I’ve realized what I really want to share with young people is to keep yourself open for that curiosity. Like, what's your spark? What do you love when you're out in the world? What makes you go, “Oh, that! That wakes me up.” Then, the key is to pursue it.
Life is about sharing with each other. It's about opening, it's about sharing worlds, opening perspectives, being open to others’ perspectives, and just staying curious. It's about a healthier civic discourse and a healthier discourse toward humanity. We need it now more than ever.
Q: I couldn’t agree more, and what a powerful way to create this conversation. I appreciate the devoted intention with which you have curated this exhibition for our community.
A: Well, however we can show up and move the needle in that direction – even a tiny bit – that’s something It matters.
My hope for this exhibition is that it achieves two things: First, that it offers well-deserved but often unreceived recognition of these incredible women artists from the Pacific Northwest. Second, I hope it encourages the people who encounter it at The Center to welcome new cultural experiences with an open mind. To stay curious about the way that artists are shaped by the culture of their native region, and how as viewers of art, we might benefit from engaging with created work that is different from the art in the place we call home. ◾️
If You Go:
What: Pacific Women of the Pacific Northwest
Where: The Bo Bartlett Center, 921 Front Avenue, Columbus, GA
When: January 18th - April 26th, 2025
*Artist Panel Discussion on February 5th at 5:30PM with an opening reception to immediately follow.
Cost: Free admission, suggested donation of $10.
Featured Artists: Victoria Adams, Drie Chapek, Jaq Chartier, Susan Dory, Betsy Eby, Ann Gardner, Emily Gherard, Etsuko Ichikawa, Lisa Jarrett, Brenda Mallory, Julie Speidel, Katy Stone, Marie Watt, and Susan Zoccola
Exhibition Sponsored By: Sue Anne, Karin, & Champ Baker III, Bettye & Cecil Cheves, Suzanne & Joel Fine, Anna & Jake Flournoy, Chris & Ken Henson, Sandy & Otis Scarborough, Gloria & Ken Sexton, Dina Woodruff and the Illges House.
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My objective for this exhibition is twofold: Firstly, to provide the geometry dash online long-overdue recognition to these remarkable women artists from the Pacific Northwest.