Spotlight - Beth Cub: 'For Me, Womanhood Is About Bonding, Camaraderie'

Living in Stokes Croft, I just ended up being aware of Beth’s work. You pop into Jamaica Street Stores and you see her work, you go to the little shop at the bottom of the hill-to-end-all-hills, Nine Tree Hill, and you see more of her work; you pop into the Canteen for a pint and you see posters for the Life Drawing Classes she runs - you just get this sense that she has this momentum behind her; this sense of an artist being woven and fused into a city. That’s always how I saw Beth.

And I appreciated her even more for her total honesty and the “behind the scenes” approach to her social media; for letting the world see her unfinished work and into her head; of being honest about how it feels to be an artist and all the question that comes with it.

That’s without mentioning her art too. Beth has a magnetic female power to her; her art, and her energy, conjure the same feeling as watching someone stomp down the street effortlessly in heels - it’s this luscious and intentionally female energy; and it’s intoxicating.

It was a total pleasure to talk to Beth about everything from her work, to the mythology of women and the everyday rituals which inspire her, to intentionally ruining her canvases and facing imposter syndrome. Read the rest of her interview first, but please do go check out her work here too.

So, Beth I know that you’re involved with so many things. You run Life Drawing Classes in Hamilton House, you help run Bicep Press and you’re an artist too. What does your average day look like?

It's quite varied, to be honest. It really depends what I’ve got to work on, but I’ll usually start off by just doing some, what I like to call," “low commitment drawings” where it doesn’t matter what they end up looking like - it’s just about the need to connect the hand eye coordination. Right now, I’ve been preparing for my shows and also doing some weirder experiments for fun; just things like drawing with a stick or using wax. They don’t lead anywhere but it’s nice to step out and try something different. I need to switch between things throughout the day.

Yeah I see that, because on Instagram you’re really open about switching things and keeping your art playful in order to stay motivated and to keep the process fun. How do you keep your studio an inspirational place to be?

So it’s quite a basic studio in Hamilton House; it’s old but it’s nice because it means I can make a mess. What I tend to do is put up sketches that mean something to me on the wall - in terms of where I want to go with my work. They act as a reminder to me. It’s not just my work either but sometimes other people’s art or photos I’ve taken and, more often now, it’s notes and text as well because I’m not just a visual person. I like to share this part of my process, everything that infuses into my art, because the end result is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s why on Instagram I rarely post my finished work because, sometimes, the stuff in the periphery is more important to me and my practise. So I make space for that in my studio.

I can totally see that; you let people so openly into your process and it makes such a difference.

So, what was your journey into becoming an artist? Was it a linear path or was it a lot more complex than that?

It was long. I went to uni and I didn’t really enjoy it that much, I felt like I was holding myself back so I fell out of love with making anything to be honest. Then after I left uni, I got a job at a call centre - and slowly starting getting bak to it. I had to check in with myself and ask, okay, where do you want to work towards now? And I knew it was art so I made that move to have jobs that were more flexible and I could move towards being an artist; working for smaller companies that were part time or had more flexible hours or starting full time and having to convince people to let me go down to part time. It took a long time; it took five years from being a full time employee to where I am now.

That’s the reality of being an artist for so many people isn’t it? Juggling practicalities and priorities. There is always that tension and balancing act between what structure and sustenance - and what fulfils and gives you that artistic space too.

Yeah, you know if you’ve come from full time working you get used to that structure - so when you go out of that it can be a bit like, “"Oh my god.” It’s balancing everything too because I had stints where I did this full time but it’s so much pressure to try and make money out of it. Whereas, on the flipside, when you’re working part time and have less time in the studio, there’s so much pressure for every second in the studio to feel productive and worthwhile. If your part time job is creative as well it can be a creative drain - so when you do sit down to create for yourself, you feel like there’s not loads left.

It definitely wasn’t linear to get to where I am today and it took a while but I’m pretty happy with what I do now helping manage Bicep Press because it’s chill, artistic and flexible for me too. So, for me, now, I find that I prefer being part time employed. I’ve got where I’m happy in the end - but it’s still moving. I think I'm still open to it just always changing. It’s a long path and I’m still on it.

Have you found that as you’ve went on this journey, and as your work situation has changed, that your message has changed? Or has it always been quite consistent?

I think the message has changed. On the practicality side, when I was working full time I was creating smaller pieces for efficiency’s sake. You know, obviously everyone wants to go and make huge canvases that are really fancy but it costs £200, it takes up space you may not have and what if it doesn’t sell? it’s a thing that no one really mentions.

Message wise, there has been quite a big shift. For a while, i felt that I was working on the surface a lot. it said what I wanted to say about accepting yourself and body positivity - but i knew it wasn’t expressing the entirety of my experience of what it means to be a woman, to me. So I decided I needed to go deeper with my own personal experiences. So right now, I don’t feel as wedded to just bodies which is nice because I have drawn so many. It’s just nice to put something out there which has more complexities.

Since you’ve infused more of your own personal experiences of femininity into your work, what has changed?

I have been thinking about the kind of stuff that is still connected to your body, but has this ritualistic sense to it - or is an emblem of a certain type of womanhood or attitude. The things that you might do every day like putting on an earring or putting heels on before a night out. It’s my way of creating and exploring this mythology of myself as a woman.

For example, I definitely don’t wear heels day to day but, to me, they are a symbol of confidence. They give me this sense that I can explore those kind of meanings without it having to be so easily digestible.

That's so interesting. It's like everyday ceremony.

Yes, exactly. It’s in the banal moments that make up the fabric of what I’m discussing. Like in the texts that women send their friends. Whereas before, i was trying to be quite representative and it sometimes felt like I was just talking about what women look like. It's a very digestible message, which is great. And people like it, but it felt like the same message over and over again.

And I've noticed that in your recent posts on Instagram too - that desire to put yourself in your work a bit more - for example, posting drawings of your friends and people you have that personal connection with?

Yes, definitely. And again, that goes into things about about making it about my experience and shared experience, rather than any woman.

So do you find it more fulfilling?

It’s meaningful and not in a laboured way. It’s just what I always come back to, like, going back to the banality of certain things like messages between myself and my friends, the ease we have with each other. Doing things like getting ready together - or where you say one thing and your friend instantly knows what that symbolises and what that means.

It’s so interesting, because I know exactly what you mean without being necessarily able to verbalise it. There is just this language that you understand - all the coded things that you just instantly get.

For me, it's about bonding and identity. That camaraderie.

So, out of all the work you’ve done, is it your most recent work that means the most to you or is there something else?

Actually what comes to my mind is this canvas that I’ve never shared. I spent ages working on it - this is about two years ago. I was in this phase where I kept creating work and both loving and hating it and my work felt quite simple. And then I had such a stereotypical “artist” day where I just tore stuff up and channelled my inner Young Tracy Emin. So, I took this canvas that I had been working on for ages and intentionally ruined it. I had this pen in my hand and I just wrote over it.

I keep it on the wall now because it reminds me that, whatever I make, it is mine.

That sounds quite pivotal

Yeah since then I’ve done more time intensive work and then intentionally written through it. It makes me feel extremely powerful. The other thing as well is spending ages on something and feeling proud of it, and then not showing it to people. I’m not an artist who doesn’t need the sharing part; I do and it means a lot to me.

But I guess it's the power of choosing, isn't it?

I saw that recently you were saying that, for the first time in a while, you felt like an artist and foremost. Can you tell me more about that?

I think with running the studio and life drawing classes, there’s a lot of organisational stuff and the day to day admin of it can get in the way of me feeling like an artist. But my boyfriend, who is an artist too, just said to me “you know you can just say you’re an artist?”, and I think after lockdown and having to be so self sufficient with putting my own projects out there, and having a few shows coming up, I am starting to feel that. It’s a struggle though, for example when someone asks me what I do and I don’t know what to say back.

I agree! I have this whole self enforced romanticisation of what it means to be an artist - like it should have a perpetual glamour to it - and sometimes routine and admin and emails can disturb that. But I know it’s not true really.

Talking of artists though, who are the other people who do inspire your work?

There are the classic ones like Tracy Emin - how the imbues everything she does with who she is is amazing. Then there are people like Claudette Johnson who does these huge scale drawings and I love that because often in fine art galleries, there are still not many drawings. There’s also a crew called Israeli Broken Fingaz - and there’s three of them, but their work is just amazing. They’ve basically travelled their whole lives so their work is a real mixture of stuff from Isreal and all of the other countries, so they have this incredible palette which you only get from seeing lots of things. There is an element of complete freedom in their work.

So talking of your work, you’ve got an exhibition coming up, ‘Between The Lines.” How is that going? And what else have you got coming up?

So yes I’ve got Between The Lines coming up; it’s a group exhibition with other artists I know so Penfold, RTiiiKA, Mernywernz, Billy and Zoë Power. I’m really looking forward to it; it’s our way of bringing together work from all different styles and disciplines. It’s eclectic and there will be lots of different texture and composition and unique takes on things. We’re using the space a lot in the evenings to host different things there too. (Opening night is Friday 18th February 6pm at Centrespace in Bristol)

I’ve also got a show coming up in a place near Liverpool - it’s really cool actually. It’s an old seaside town which was quite rundown and then guy basically went to London and made his fortune, sold his business, and has come back to his hometown and has started regenerating the area. Basically by himself.

That’s incredible. Makes me feel like a bit of a failure. What am I doing with my life?

Yeah, it’s so cool! He came back and got street artists to do murals and now he’s doing a women's exhibition. It’s so nice, after covid, to have an end goal as well. Sometimes making things for yourself, especially if you’re intentionally putting a lot of yourself into it, can always feel quite masturbatory. Putting it up on the wall and just thinking “yeahhhh, looks GOOD.”

So, before we go, instead of asking about the future, where do you see yourself right now?

I feel like I'm definitely in an exploratory phase. Things can be playful; I’m learning that you don’t have to tick things off a list. I used to come and sit down and think “is it worth it if it’s not going to be really good?” but I’m working my way around it. We’ll see where it goes. It’’s nice. It’s freeing.