BW Study II Painting

SCRAPES OF LAYERS GOBS OF FEELINGS Tobi Beck is a self-taught abstract painter in Southern California. Inspired by interior city landscapes, her textures, colors, and expressive marks pull from memories and feelings from her childhood growing up in the Old Harbor Projects of Boston, MA - a grit that infuses her abstract style. "I started painting in 2014 to work through stress. I became a full-time artist after a cancer scare. I quit corporate life in 2016 and never looked back. My work is inspired by interior city landscapes; grit and textures I loved as a kid in South Boston that have stuck with me my whole life and can be seen in abstractly in my work today: brick, concrete, ripped stickers on light poles.​ These are things that still make my heartbeat. I have big love for graphics, as well, which pops through in my shapes and compositions." Her work focuses on emotion and visual texture through an intuitive process. As her marks develop, she allows layers and colors to evolve using instinct and introspect to guide next steps. Every decision informs the next spontaneously. "Each painting begins with openness. Every scrape and smudge, an exhale. There is no plan but to listen, feel, react, and let go." She finds comfort in the unique openness that abstraction allows; giving room to explore life, thoughts, feelings, and the development of each painting, honestly through self-trust and vulnerability. "For me, abstraction means freedom. It's where I go to be honest and confused about life; asking questions and openly feeling without needing resolution or answers to whatever is going on. I can just be and work through it all humanly. It's raw and undefined. It builds a great foundation to build upon with composition and values within the layers; learning and refining as I go in art and life."