Bethany Downs

Artist Statement

Everyone experiences emotions. For me, color is emotion, emotion is color.
I am intermission is a twelve-panel narrative that encapsulates wildly different perspectives of
the world and presents them through a combination of ink, watercolor, and written word. In each
panel color not only contributes to making the image visible, but it transmits the emotion at the heart of the image.

I am Intermission is meant to open conversation about what you are seeing and the emotions
that visual experience generates. If I were to take away the written directive, how do you feel about what you see?

I Am Intermission

*** Please click on any image below to view it in full detail. Thank you! ***

I am

I am a Shield Maiden,
Strong and willful.
I am a Valkyrie,
Seeking those with honor.
I am a Banshee
Sending warning to all.
I am the fox in the evening.
I am the Phoenix on the ground,
Ready to take flight.
I am the moon, the sun, and the stars.
I am the Druid,
Seeking shelter in the night.
I am here,
And I am ready to fight.

The Banshee

At a loss for words
Silence fills the space
Grief fills out hearts
For some,
An endless void
For some,
The end
For others,
A reunion

Sadness strikes again

Be gentle still breeze
Take wind,
And carry my heed
For the banshee,

She did come a callin’

The Unseen

Knowledge is power.
Power of a different kind.
To be lost in the mind,
There is one thing you will find.
The truth is behind all of mankind.

Hiding in the wings.
If you listen closely,
You can hear them ring,
Or quite even possibly,
You’ve heard them sing.

Pay attention my friends,
Fore they’re right there as you tend,
To your garden, you see,
Fore in nature,

They are free.

Drowning One Day

I’m drowning in this sea of fate.
Throw me a line and save me from misery.
Teach me the ways and show me the
light.
Forgive and forget.
Educate and enlight.

Today is the day I want to begin

again.
Take it all,
Feel high and divine.
Let me fall from your graces,
Unveil the hatred inside.

An Apology to the gods

I don’t have time for your rhymes,
We have to hurry up,
Dive into the lines
Of a life, where somebody tries,
To trace the mind,
Of a man who is blind,
To the crimes of the people,
Who could only wish they had a
dime.
For we live in a time,
Where no one can be inclined,
To rise up against,
The tides and ask a fellow man in
the skies,

That MAYBE
He will let me apologize.

The One

I sang a soft melody,
With tears in my
eyes.
I asked him for a
miracle,
That I would make it
out alive