Beth McCormick
How I became an Artist
My kindergarten teacher told me I would become an artist when I was five years old. I believed her, since she seemed to know so much about everything. She noticed when I made the shift from scribbling in circles with crayons, to laying down parallel strokes, and from this, she foretold my future. Of all the teachers I’ve had in my life, perhaps she was the most influential.
The Onion House in 1963, soon after construction.
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At ten years old, I was invited by my favorite, very eccentric aunt to spend the summer in Kona, Hawaii in her newly built ‘Onion House,’ her grand architectural adventure. The home was outlandish at the time, with exterior walls of only screen and stained glass, fusing the interior with the tropical environment. That pivotal summer changed the course of my life, and the Big Island has been my spiritual home ever since. |
Raku Mask - Clay, turquoise, glass, fiber
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Later, as an art student at the University of Hawaii, I created an intricate collage for a class assignment, and my professor said, “You know, some of the most successful artists are the ones who drop out.” I heeded his suggestion, and found my own path. Since then, I have experimented endlessly in clay, oils, pastels, fiber, bronze, digital media, and feathers.
Necessity has been a great teacher, dictating that if I were to pursue art, I needed to earn my living at it. My early featherwork business provided the ’10,000 hours’ (and then some) as a studio craftsman needed to master the work. My contemporary take on this ancient Hawaiian art form slowly evolved into large shields, masks and feather sculptures. My work has been shown in over 90 galleries nationwide and abroad, with work in many private collections, including the Michael Rosenberg Collection in London and the Chris Hemmeter collection in Hawaii. |
'The Shadow of Light' - Natural feathers, wood
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The Onion House after I completed renovation, 2017
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When I was 30, my beloved aunt crashed-and-burned financially, which created a crisis that gave me the opportunity to purchase the Onion House just before it went into foreclosure. The Onion House is now a Hawaii landmark of Organic Architecture, but it then lay in ruins, on the brink of being taken over by the bank, as well as the jungle. I scrambled to buy the place before the date of foreclosure. My aunt came with the house, and I took care of her for the last three years of her life. I lived and created featherwork there for 16 years as I began the renovation, which lasted 34 years. When I made the decision to start my next business, sharing this special place with the world as a vacation destination, the Onion House received international media attention, with features by the New York Times, Travel Channel, MTV, HGTV, the Learning Channel, Global Architecture, and many more.
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During the time my Onion House business was being noticed by the world, I wanted nothing more than to live as close as possible to nature. I divided my time between a rustic cabin at 10,000 ft above Telluride, Colorado, and the rugged Hawaiian coastline of Opihikao, where I helped to carve an off-grid permaculture farm out of the jungle. This led to co-founding the Permaculture Foundation of Hawaii, with the intention of exploring a way for us humans to live in harmony with the environment.
My current series of images explores that persistent longing for union with the natural world, using the forms of animals as a metaphor for the less tangible aspects of the human experience.
My current series of images explores that persistent longing for union with the natural world, using the forms of animals as a metaphor for the less tangible aspects of the human experience.
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"Butterfly Dreaming" Oil on wood panel
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