Billy Bob Beamer

Billy Bob Beamer (b. 1947) works in small formats to create compositions through the use of meditational and labor-intensive techniques. He has exhibited in over 60 solo, juried/curated, and invitational art shows throughout the USA and at the Ancient High House Museum, Staffordshire, UK. His art works can be found in numerous public and private collections, including the Virginia's Governor's Mansion, the Virginia Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley, and the estate of noted art/cultural historian, Roger Shattuck. Currently, in addition to his own drawing, Beamer teaches classes in "drawing as quiet active meditation" to relieve pain and stress. In January and February of 2011, beamer exhibited with internationally known artists at Roanoke College, in Salem, Virginia. The exhibit featured work done by those who use meditation as a primary vehicle for creating. beamer says, "My best way to express incalculable enormity is to create its contrasting opposite. At this time, I am concentrating on drawing--- that most basic mode of communication --and on arte povera-like constructions, both in a small format. To paraphrase Blake: 'the universe lies in a grain of sand' ... and in drawings or objects that are small and that may appear not too carefully crafted (however labor intensive the actual technique), I am in some sense paying homage to the marginalized...to the people (and animals) tragically seen as 'throw-aways' or 'what is to be ignored' by culture/society at large." beamer, a sociology graduate of the College of William and Mary, is also a retiree from the Commonwealth of Virginia's Department of Social Services, and an award-winning trumpeter, with a 40 year week-end career playing jazz, R & B, blues, and other types of music. He also explores experimental, experiential writing as a meditational tool, and has had five books of his POMES published by Chalk Editions and White Sky Books. billy bob (who has a married daughter, a psychologist) lives with his wife, Kathy, and their cats in Bedford County, Virginia. http://www.outsiderart.info/beamer.htm