Linda Bethea

Lives and works in Greenwood, LA

Artist statement

I paint on other people’s old clothes. I find denim jackets and overalls at thrift stores, take them home, and paint flowers, farm scenes, and family stories on them. I call the work Painted Sun Denim and sign each piece LBethArt. I started painting about a year ago, after my son died. I had never painted before. I was a registered nurse for more than thirty years — ICU, ER, acute dialysis — and when the working stopped, I didn’t know what to do with my hands or my grief. So I started painting, sometimes twelve hours a day. The work gave the grief somewhere to go. I paint what I know: Louisiana farm life, cows, roosters, winter hayrides, the stories my family told at the table. Some pieces carry antique handmade lace I find at estate sales — work other women’s hands made a hundred years ago. I won’t cover that work up. I paint and stitch around it and let it lead. I’m not a trained artist. I’m a nurse who learned to paint because she had to put the love somewhere.

Artwork