Her paintings are dreamy polychromatics that shimmer like black magic, capturing a surrealistic netherland inhabited by funereal femmes fatales and... dead bugs? Yep. Bess' vocation may be art (she got her BFA in painting at ASU), but her avocation is science — specifically, biology, botany, and natural history. We're betting she was one of those kids who poked and prodded at doodlebugs and trapped fireflies in mayo jars — a surefire way to familiarize oneself with death at an early age. "I make paintings that feature biology or botany in almost a religious way," Bess says. "Often, the animals and insects — and sometimes people — in the paintings are dead, so people interpret that as morbid. But for me, it's more out of respect, like, 'Here's this thing that may be dead, but that doesn't make it any less fascinating to look at and learn about.'"
Teach us more, please! Or at least show us more: Bess shows often at Modified Arts on Roosevelt Row.
