Beth Livingston exemplifies the spirit of ArtFirst!
By: Dennis O’Neill
When Montana artist and former Princeton resident Beth Livingston begins a new project, she expects her first intentions to unravel.
"I go into it thinking that I’m controlling the process, but inevitably something happens that changes its direction and transforms it into something unexpected and new," Ms. Livingston said.
Her art has mirrored her life. In 1989, when a freak car accident left her permanently paralyzed from the waist down, she was forced to re-envision and transform herself in new and unexpected ways.
Ms. Livingston is one of 78 professional artists with disabilities whose works will be showcased at the third annual ArtFirst!, sponsored by the Auxiliary of University Medical Center at Princeton (UMCP). The international exhibition co-chaired by Cynthia Shull and Cindy Torruellas, with honorary chairs Marie and Edward Matthews runs from March 7 through April 15 and opens Sunday with a Patrons’ Preview Party from 2 to 5 p.m.
The afternoon event includes a fashion show featuring the latest knitwear by fiber artist Sandy D’Andrade, who has multiple sclerosis. Patrons will also have the opportunity to meet with artists and buy their works before the exhibit opens to the public on Monday.
Ms. Livingston is one of 28 new artists added to this year’s exhibition.
Displaying both athletic prowess and artistic ability, Ms. Livingston (then Elizabeth Barclay, daughter of Ace and Marge Barclay) graduated early from Princeton High School and attended the Parsons School of Design in Manhattan where she received a BFA in illustration.
"Art was always a part of my being from early childhood," Ms. Livingston said. "I thought it would be a good career choice to combine being an artist with teaching."
An avid outdoor enthusiast, Ms. Livingston spent two years in the mountain resort town of Jackson Hole, Wyo., before returning east for a degree in art education from Bank Street College in New York.
Shortly after graduating, she and her husband moved to Bozeman, Mont. She said the area combined the familiar flavor of a college town with her love of the outdoors.
Only two months after the move, while running an errand into town with her two large shepherd dogs, her life took an unexpected turn.
"I rolled over into a deep irrigation ditch in front of my house while I was fastening my seat belt," Ms. Livingston said. "I tried to drive out of it, and the car flipped a couple of times."
One of the dogs, Grover, escaped the overturned car and headed down the road where he was spotted by a neighbor. While trying to return the dog, the neighbor found Ms. Livingston still trapped in her car.
Transported by paramedics to the nearest hospital, doctors quickly diagnosed her with a spinal cord injury that would leave her permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
"I was a young and newly married college graduate, with a new job, just looking to settle in and enjoy my life," Ms. Livingston said. "This kind of threw a wrench into that for a while."
Profoundly saddened by her loss, Ms. Livingston said she struggled to "retool and re-envision" herself during her rehabilitation.
"The scariest thing for me was being depressed. I did not want to become a slave to sadness and loss," Ms. Livingston said. "I was more afraid of being unhappy, than of not walking."
Refusing to be limited by her injury, or the "cheesy" expectations of others, Ms. Livingston has moved on to some remarkable achievements.
"I just couldn’t buy into that whole belief system that OK, I’ll just sit behind a desk and do nothing," she said. "That’s essentially admitting the injury will redefine who I am."
Besides raising two children, she works part-time as a Home Depot Olympic Job Opportunities Program representative and is under contract as a product designer and field tester for Patagonia, a sports clothing manufacturer. She is profiled as one of their athletic representatives on the company Web site.
She is also an instructor for the Eagle Mount Adaptive Sports and Recreation Program in Bozeman, where she teaches skiing to people with disabilities.
Last week she taught a group of disabled Iraq war veterans and joined them for her first game of sled hockey.
"They were eight amputees that I taught to downhill and cross-country ski," she said. "Skiing is hard work, so they asked to play sled hockey."
Four years ago, she took up Nordic (cross-country) skiing a sport she often ridiculed. Although humbled by her first few attempts at the rigorous sport, she quickly learned to appreciate the independence it gave her.
"It’s hard to go out for a day of downhill skiing when you have to huck all your gear up the mountain," Ms. Livingston said. "Cross-country skiing is just putting on your skis and going. There’s no ticket window or lift. It’s just a great workout, and I can do it on my own."
She improved enough to join the U.S. Paralympics team at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, and was profiled on both the Oxygen and A&E television networks.
Her athleticism and love of the outdoors has also contributed to her art. While kayaking with a friend on the Yellowstone River last year, she spotted an interesting log that had been cut down by a beaver and left in a debris field.
"When a beaver fells a tree they usually only make one cut before they drag it away," she said. "This had been gnawed into three channels like the beaver had been using it for practice."
She convinced her friend to help load the three-foot, seventy-pound log into the kayak and take it back to her studio.
"We agreed to share custody of the log when we took it out," she joked, "but I petitioned for full custody when we got back so that I could make it into something else."
It became "Firefly," which won second place in the ArtFirst! sculpture category. Her other entered piece, "Fairest of Them All," took first prize in crafts. Ms. Livingston said she made so many additions and subtractions in creating her bejeweled mirror that it was like trying on a hundred wedding dresses. Both pieces are on display at UMCP.
Ms. Livingston’s work was recently included in an exhibition at the Zimmer Children’s Museum in Los Angeles. The event included 100 noted artists, activists, actors and athletes. As a motivational tool, she imagined her work making the cover of the exhibition program.
"I got to L.A. and there was no program, but a beautiful box of information cards on every entered piece," she said. "And mine was the top card the cover of the show."
Unwilling to limit the size of her pieces because of her disability, she has devised ways to gain access to her work. Although she is never fatigued, she admits being frustrated by not being able to do everything on her own.
"It’s tough because with most of my work I need help," she said. "And nothing else happens until I get that help."
She expects help at her newly opened art studio in downtown Bozeman when she begins teaching classes this spring.
"Little kids are born helpers," she said.
Recently, one of her children brought home a Helen Keller quote in their weekly update page that continues to inspire her. "The richness of the human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome."
"That couldn’t have more meaning for my life," Ms. Livingston said. "There are those that lead charmed lives for a period of time, but no one escapes challenges. They are what gives life super meaning."
All ArtFirst! works are for sale, with the artists receiving 80 percent. The remaining 20 percent, as well as proceeds from the Patrons’ Preview Party, will benefit the University Medical Center at Princeton’s Breast Health Center and will help add to the hospital’s permanent ArtFirst! collection.
Patrons’ Preview Party tickets range from $50 to $250. With the exception of the opening party, ArtFirst! is free and open to the public Every day from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Gallery tours can be arranged.
For more information call (609) 497-4211, or visit www.princetonhcs.org (click on Auxiliary, then click on Special Events).