Works & Arts
I’m Beth Ames Altringer Eagle, designer, professor, and creative technologist.
I’m in the process of integrating two studio portfolios. You can learn more about my studio’s design, research, apps, education projects at bethaltringer.com.
To learn about visual arts projects scroll down or go here...
I’m in the process of integrating two studio portfolios. You can learn more about my studio’s design, research, apps, education projects at bethaltringer.com.
To learn about visual arts projects scroll down or go here...
Process
Current
Current
Product Portraits
In progress
This collection builds on my earlier work on phygital painting processes.
It combines my interests in textiles, color, and products as materials that reflect societal values. These paintings are made of pixels that I individually made from real products that are for sale. Each pixel has a name and therefore carries all of the commercia, geographic,l and societal associations of that product. Once digitized, I paint with them, weaving them pixel by pixel until I am satisfied with the final textile-inspired result. I record the location of each pixel placement, thereby creating a complete three-dimensional spatial map of the elements and layers contained in the work.
It combines my interests in textiles, color, and products as materials that reflect societal values. These paintings are made of pixels that I individually made from real products that are for sale. Each pixel has a name and therefore carries all of the commercia, geographic,l and societal associations of that product. Once digitized, I paint with them, weaving them pixel by pixel until I am satisfied with the final textile-inspired result. I record the location of each pixel placement, thereby creating a complete three-dimensional spatial map of the elements and layers contained in the work.
Interactive pieces
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Process
2023-2024
2023-2024
Phygital Paintings
Interactive pieces
I wanted to recreate the felt relationship with painting materials of a physical painting process... but in a fully digital process.
Digital painting is more efficient than physical painting but lacks visceral intimacy. I'm a professional designer who uses digital tools all day, and also a longtime self-taught painter who loves using physical tools. The strokes in a physical painting process contain a lot of experiential information. Just looking at a paint stroke reminds me of the feeling of its texture and the memory of placing it. Physical painting unfolds slowly, like a relationship. In contrast, digital painting feels more like an assembly line of actions, clicks, layers, adjustments, scripts, and filters. There is little relationship with each individual stroke and all the steps are easy to forget.
Originals are large interactive files with videos in very high resolution (over 100MB). This site does not display the interaction, and files are closer to 10MB.
Digital painting is more efficient than physical painting but lacks visceral intimacy. I'm a professional designer who uses digital tools all day, and also a longtime self-taught painter who loves using physical tools. The strokes in a physical painting process contain a lot of experiential information. Just looking at a paint stroke reminds me of the feeling of its texture and the memory of placing it. Physical painting unfolds slowly, like a relationship. In contrast, digital painting feels more like an assembly line of actions, clicks, layers, adjustments, scripts, and filters. There is little relationship with each individual stroke and all the steps are easy to forget.
Originals are large interactive files with videos in very high resolution (over 100MB). This site does not display the interaction, and files are closer to 10MB.
Examples
Process
2023
2023
Bixels
Creating components for the Phygital Paintings
I make my own pixels. Each one has a name, story, its own metadata, and is mapped to a real texture you can touch. I digitally sign each pixel before using it to digitally paint paintings.
I make pixels out of products (I am also a product designer) and have been focused for a few years on makeup as a paint product. Makeup is a fascinating material, a juxtaposition, at once mundane and controversial. It’s sold in supermarkets and used regularly by 60-80% of women worldwide, making it by far the most popular kind of paint. And yet, it is also the most controversial type of paint, and has been banned at various times in history, most notably by Queen Victoria. An archeologist would find that the makeup of a given era reveals a lot about a civilization's technology as well as its concerns such as sun protection, beauty, health, social and courtship rituals, class hierarchies, and sometimes even religious or battle practices. As someone who has worked in fashion, technology, art, and product design for years, I like to combine these interests in my art, and am drawn to the social and expressive complexity of makeup and what it says about society.
So in my latest work, I’ve been digitally archiving makeup, turning it into pixels, and painting with it. I chose to focus on it for a few reasons. It is: 1) a socially- and emotionally-loaded material, 2) designed to deteriorate, and therefore the only way to make it archival is to digitize it, and 3) an underdog history in the fine arts, despite being more popular and richer in technical and social meaning than other types of paint.
I make pixels out of products (I am also a product designer) and have been focused for a few years on makeup as a paint product. Makeup is a fascinating material, a juxtaposition, at once mundane and controversial. It’s sold in supermarkets and used regularly by 60-80% of women worldwide, making it by far the most popular kind of paint. And yet, it is also the most controversial type of paint, and has been banned at various times in history, most notably by Queen Victoria. An archeologist would find that the makeup of a given era reveals a lot about a civilization's technology as well as its concerns such as sun protection, beauty, health, social and courtship rituals, class hierarchies, and sometimes even religious or battle practices. As someone who has worked in fashion, technology, art, and product design for years, I like to combine these interests in my art, and am drawn to the social and expressive complexity of makeup and what it says about society.
So in my latest work, I’ve been digitally archiving makeup, turning it into pixels, and painting with it. I chose to focus on it for a few reasons. It is: 1) a socially- and emotionally-loaded material, 2) designed to deteriorate, and therefore the only way to make it archival is to digitize it, and 3) an underdog history in the fine arts, despite being more popular and richer in technical and social meaning than other types of paint.
Examples
Process
Spring 2022
Spring 2022
Gradient Days
Gradients, skies, and emotions
Exploring emotions via gradients, layers, and skies
In this project, I combined my interests in gradients, skies, ane emotions. There is an indie game called ‘I Love Hue’ that inspires me, my favorite time of day is sunset, and I’ve been learning about how paragliders learn to ‘read’ the sky to understand how to navigate it and maintain thermal lift to fly for longer periods of time. I like that as a metaphor for keeping your emotions uplifted.
In this project, I combined my interests in gradients, skies, ane emotions. There is an indie game called ‘I Love Hue’ that inspires me, my favorite time of day is sunset, and I’ve been learning about how paragliders learn to ‘read’ the sky to understand how to navigate it and maintain thermal lift to fly for longer periods of time. I like that as a metaphor for keeping your emotions uplifted.
Examples
Process
Spring 2022
Spring 2022
Light Textiles
Light Textiles
Exploring using light to create textile patterns
In this project, I was trying to create a perception of woven light and a meditative feeling. The original files for this series are very high resulution GIFs set to a breath rhythm.
In this project, I was trying to create a perception of woven light and a meditative feeling. The original files for this series are very high resulution GIFs set to a breath rhythm.
Examples
The GBs
2021
The GBs
Historic dynamic portraits project
The real meaning of this project requires effort to discover. The GBs collection tells a story that is encoded in the artworks. It references other art and philosophical works from the past. The story of The GBs unfolds over time and is about creative catharsis.
Technical achievement. The GBs are technically novel:
Advanced technology is only a small part of The GB's story. These portraits are designed to open the door to something bigger, namely, an interactive community that supports members to express their many selves and process their personal ups and downs through regular creative practice, whether amateur or professional.
Collection as a metaphor for the paradox of multi-dimensional expression. Like us, GB portraits have many sides, and they wish to fully express them all. Like us, they visually change over time. Like us, they face an age-old paradox: How to discover and grow all of your identities (lover, child, parent, boss, sinner, saint...) when the system you live in forces you to conform to one ideal at a time? Like us, GBs have ups and downs; and are ultimately on a journey to find peace within. Finally, like us, the journey of any individual GB transcends her; she becomes part of something bigger at the end of her life cycle.
Collection as a game. The collection itself is also a game. If anyone ever decodes it, they will discover the game. And if they complete the game, they will find the story.
Technical achievement. The GBs are technically novel:
- The portraits visually evolve over time. Collectors request changes through the UI. The GBs vary in their response based on their metadata.
- Portraits are encoded with personalities that influence their behavior.
- Portraits can send messages to other portraits in the collection (via an on-chain mechanism called Glitter).
Advanced technology is only a small part of The GB's story. These portraits are designed to open the door to something bigger, namely, an interactive community that supports members to express their many selves and process their personal ups and downs through regular creative practice, whether amateur or professional.
Collection as a metaphor for the paradox of multi-dimensional expression. Like us, GB portraits have many sides, and they wish to fully express them all. Like us, they visually change over time. Like us, they face an age-old paradox: How to discover and grow all of your identities (lover, child, parent, boss, sinner, saint...) when the system you live in forces you to conform to one ideal at a time? Like us, GBs have ups and downs; and are ultimately on a journey to find peace within. Finally, like us, the journey of any individual GB transcends her; she becomes part of something bigger at the end of her life cycle.
Collection as a game. The collection itself is also a game. If anyone ever decodes it, they will discover the game. And if they complete the game, they will find the story.
Examples
Various, Since 2012
Physical Works
Acrylic on Canvas
I wanted to capture the magic of the old Magic Eye posters, but with paint, canvas, and portraiture. My physical paintings have a specific style - I like inviting people to explore hidden faces and figures in what initially feels like an abstract, highly textured painting. Examples:
Rosalind, , Acrylic on Canvas, 2016, 24” x 36”, sold
Douglas, , Acrylic on Canvas, 2016, 24” x 36”, sold
Rosalind, , Acrylic on Canvas, 2016, 24” x 36”, sold
Franklin, a British biophysicist, made critical contributions to our understanding of, among other things, DNA and RNA. Despite widespread belief that she deserved to be nominated for the Nobel prize along with Frances Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins, she was not. Some controversy surrounds her under-recognized contribution. She passed away four years before her colleagues were awarded the 1962 prize.
Autumn Face, Acrylic on Canvas, 2012, 24” x 36”, sold
When viewed in person at a normal distance, the face or figure is not visible. When viewed in-person from a distance, however, and with just the right squint of your eyes, the face or figure becomes obvious. On the web, the image gets flattened, which makes it easier to see the hidden face or figure. This one is a hidden face.
Autumn Face, Acrylic on Canvas, 2012, 24” x 36”, sold
When viewed in person at a normal distance, the face or figure is not visible. When viewed in-person from a distance, however, and with just the right squint of your eyes, the face or figure becomes obvious. On the web, the image gets flattened, which makes it easier to see the hidden face or figure. This one is a hidden face.
Douglas, , Acrylic on Canvas, 2016, 24” x 36”, sold
I've been painting under-sung heroes: this is inspired by Douglas Prasher who should have been included in 2008 Nobel prize in chemistry, then drove a shuttle bus for years, now is back in science.
Examples
