Bethany Carlson Coffin is an artist and teacher currently living and working in Chattanooga. Bethany has lived in Tennessee three years, and is currently faculty at Cleveland State Community College. Focusing primarily on drawing, Bethany also makes installations that relate to her often delicate, pensive, and funereal artworks. Bethany is dedicated to art as a field of study and to community involvement that both educates and enriches lives.

Shadows of Another
I am drawn to images and objects related to death such as flowers and bodily remains. The use of these vestiges connects to my interest in the ceremony surrounding grief and quietus. By selecting processes and subjects that point to mortality, one is confronted with the struggle to both memorialize and let go.

Moons
A faithful witness, moons are observers of unimaginable sublimity and complexity. They guide and are guided. They are synchronized and interdependent. They are mystical, imperfect, effectual companions.

Many of these works employ imagery of a space or orbital bodies that can scarcely be reached or examined. As such, they are defined more by absence than by presence. They are linked to a void that is often charged with mystery and wonder. Much like the thoughts and experiences that die with those no longer living, these spaces are deeply meaningful to ponder and impossible to fully reconcile.