People
Faculty
Bethany Pierce
Contact Information
212 Boyd Hall
Oxford Campus
513 529 1374
piercebm@muohio.edu
www.bethanypierce.typepad.com
Title
- Visiting Faculty
Education
- M.A. Creative Writing, August 2006 Miami University
- B.F.A. Studio Art, May 2005 Concentration Painting, Miami University
Research Interests
As a painter, I’m interested in the duality of our everyday existence. In one respect we are like animals driven by instinct and compelled to satisfy the demands of our physical appetites. Yet simultaneously we experience passions and great raptures, indescribable pains and joys. We function daily in a bizarre juxtaposition of matter and of spirit, of that which is seen and that which is invisible.
Most of my imagery originates in X-rays. They illuminate the architecture of the body while translating organs and bones into a system of biomorphic shapes and translucent structures. Their ethereal quality connotes the typical western ideas of ghosts: spirits represented as figures of transparency.
As a writer, I'm interested in ideas and depictions of spiritual ecstasy. I’m drawn to characters who hope to resurrect the dead, who want to be married to Christ, child mystics.
Selected Publications
- First novel, Feeling for Bones, due for publication by Moody Publishers in 2007.
Work In Progress
Bethany is currently working on her second novel entitled Courting the Virgin Mary. She is also working in her studio to prepare a series of paintings for a 2007 exhibition in Austin, Texas.