Artist: Kirsten Beitler
Title: A Beehive State of Mind (The Artist As an Allegory For What It's Like To Be a Woman in Utah)
Medium: Original Oil on Canvas
Size: 24x24 inArtist Statement:
As a mother, I learned to exercise sovereignty over my story and my children’s, trusting personal revelation, lived experience, and presence as sources of authority. The fractures in this image are not flaws to be hidden, but evidence of becoming. By releasing inherited ideals of the “perfect” family, I claimed the power to define wholeness on my own terms.Here, my maternal authority was an act of faith: choosing presence over appearance, repair over shame, and connection over conformity. What holds us together is not perfection, but intention, and the gold of love applied by hand.
