Sunday, March 28 : 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Come chat with artist Beverly Naidus and see her two exhibitions: “Healing Deities”  and "Curtain Call: Portable Altars for Grief and Gratitude” 

This is the last chance to see her work at VCA. The show closes at 4pm Sunday March 28th. 

“Healing Deities”  is a series of digital paintings, where Beverly explores very contemporary interpretations of Buddhas, boddhisattvas, pagan gods, goddesses and yoginis, many of them breathing and/or sitting in the midst of challenging environments and social circumstances. These paintings were inspired by the words of her son, Sam, when he asked her at age 4, “why are you always painting sick people?”  At the time, Beverly was recovering from an environmental illness caused by exposures to pesticides and was painting the portraits of the other sick individuals she was meeting in clinics. Her son’s question inspired her to shift gears, and focus on the healing journey. As she transformed her work, she began to get well. She saw this work essential to not only the healing of individual trauma, but the collective trauma of our ecosystems and the living beings with them who are being assaulted by violence and pollution.

The second collection “Curtain Call: Portable Altars for Grief and Gratitude” is a series of cloth/paper hangings. Each one focuses on a different endangered creature or element, from honeybees to old growth trees to clean air. While standing with the altars, the viewer has an opportunity to be with the stories of their own grief and gratitude. 

Beverly’s art is a genre of contemporary art that is content-based rather than form-based. While there are many artists who perfect their craft in one medium, mastering a medium has not motivated Beverly’s creative process. Instead, she works with ideas and scavenges the materials necessary to make what she needs to say. In this series what is consistent to all of the altars is a central Xray image of the artist’s spine and other parts of her interior.