By
Shaun Clayton
Arizona Daily Wildcat
ASU professor's exhibition now showing at Joseph Gross
"That painting's so good I like to lick it," Beverly McIver said of her painting, "Vulnerable One."
The painting is one of a dozen now showing at McIver's solo exhibit, "Life is Good," at the Joseph Gross Gallery until Nov. 9.
The paintings in McIver's exhibition are self-portraits - not of her physical state, but as she exists emotionally. The paintings depict a black woman wearing black-face in a variety of different activities, from love-making to a simple enjoyment of a moment in time.
"I'm interested in making artwork that makes the viewer aware of their own vulnerabilities," McIver said. "Talking about issues that are difficult to talk about - like loving others, somebody who's different from you and for those people who are engaged in loving people who are other, it's sort of an affirmation that that's okay and it's beautiful and that it's real."
McIver said she hopes that her paintings will help the viewer confront racism.
"For those who are really separatist and want the races to remain with each other, these paintings really sort of allow them to confront that kind of racism," McIver said. "We're all just people and we're all very vulnerable. The big objective goal should be to find someone to love, regardless of who he is or what race he is or how old he is, or whatever."
McIver's exhibition consists of oil paintings on canvas, which she said she uses because of the unique properties oil paint possesses.
"Oil paint is very luscious. It has a sensuality to it," she said. "The painting, the act of painting and the act of applying oil paint to a canvas is sort of a complete experience in itself. Even if you don't make anything, even if what you make is trash, the process of making oil painting is really wonderful and sensuous."
McIver's favorite painting, "Vulnerable One," is an example of the sensuality that she is going for.
Featuring a close-up of a woman's face that fills the right half of the frame, the painting possesses several artistic properties that make it her favorite, McIver said.
"I think, compositionally, how it's set up. The bigness of the face, the light and what a sharp contrast and the position of light source that's created on the painting," she said. "I think the mouth just being sort of slightly ajar sort of gives you that feeling that the painting is breathing or that the woman is catching her breath from running, or singing or sex - you know, whatever, so that's what's fabulous about it."
McIver is an artist who knows what she likes and knows how to express that on the canvas. In 1992, she earned a Master of Fine Arts from Pennsylvania State University, and has received seven grants and fellowships. Such hard work has not gone unnoticed, and she has had exhibitions at the Scottsdale Museum of Art, Duke University, Georgia State University and others.
"Life is Good" is McIver's 14th solo exhibition.
"This journey has been a blast making these paintings," McIver said.
In her next exhibition, McIver will remove the black-face from her portrayal of herself in the paintings - something alluded to in her painting "Invisible Me," where the face is being rubbed out to show McIver's true self underneath.
In addition to being an artist, McIver is an assistant professor at art at Arizona State University. As an instructor, McIver encourages students hoping to pursue a career in the arts to be patient.
"You have to have lots of patience and lots of perseverance in order to make this work for you," she said. "It takes time to develop this work and get just an inch down the big pad. So you know, just hang in there."
