Beth Stafford

1949 - Gastonia, NC USAI am a painter, gardener, sailor, and am owned by a dog. I love nature and the Creator of it. These ingredients are all part of my art, whether visible or not.I started out with intention of becoming a veterinarian, and somehow wound up as an artist instead. I guess I have always been an artist, from the time I could hold a crayon and make a mark, but in my particular environment there were no role models or school programs to encourage my development. It was much later in life, after my original plan failed, that I got a degree in fine art and took that path. In the past three decades, my art has evolved from highly detailed sentimentality to hard edge architectural subjects to colorful, ethereal abstractions of flowers and other wonderful subjects from nature and elsewhere - and presently to wildly colorful abstract expressionism under the nom de brush "PiCassieO". Whew- what a ride! I do enjoy pushing my boundaries.

BFA - Painting & Printmaking, UNC-Greensboro, 1978BS- Animal Science & Zoology, NC State University, 1971I have been in over 60 juried exhibitions during my career, including shows at the North Carolina Museum of Art and the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, NC.My work is in many corporate and private collections, including those of the United States State Department, Oxford University Press, American Express, and KPMG Peat Marwick.,