Claude Pelieu and Mary Beach

Biographies from Beach Pelieu Art Site (Click for Info)

Mary Beach was born in Hartford, Connecticut in on May 8, 1919. In 1925, after her mother's divorce, she moved, for six months out of the year, to France with her mother and two sisters. During the first part of World War II she lived in the small town of St. Jean de Luz, but, with the entrance of the United States in the war in 1941, she was soon viewed as a suspicious alien and was, for a time, interned in a Nazi prison camp known as Glacière.

Despite her parent’s protests, but perhaps under the influence of her distant relative Sylvia Beach, famed proprietor of Paris's Shakespeare & Co. and the first publisher of James Joyce, Mary pursued her life as an artist with great passion from an early age.

Her first solo show was at the Galerie du Béarn, in Pau, France in 1943, and she has since then continuously exhibited her work all over the world.


Mary returned to the United States in 1946, where she married Alain Joseph (an American soldier she had met in France) and had two children, Pamela and Jeffery. She attended the Hartford Art School (where she won first prize in her class), and also attended school at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

 In 1957 Mary and her family returned to France, to Strasbourg, and then Paris in 1959. She attended the esteemed Grande Chaumière, where she studied under Henri Goetz. She exhibited at the historic Salon des Indépendents in Paris in both 1957 and 1958; won the Prix du Dome at the Salon des Femmes Peintres in 1959; won 1st Prize, Vichy, France, and Silver Medal in 1959 as well; and was exhibited at the Salon des Surindépendents in Paris in 1960.



These early accomplishments stand alone, and would be exemplary for any artist. But for an American woman in France -- for a wife and mother in the late 1950s anywhere, Mary's success in the male-dominated art world is truly astounding. She is one of the great, under-appreciated pioneers of her generation.

After the loss of her first husband, Mary met Claude Pélieu. While living with Claude she continued to work and exhibit all over the world (Galerie du Moulin Rouge, Biennale de Paris; Suzan Cooper Gallery; Galerie Wandragore, Rouen; etc., etc.). During this time she worked at City Lights, in San Francisco, where she discovered and published the poet Bob Kaufman and, under her own imprint of Beach Books, Texts, and Documents, published William Burroughs. She also collaborated extensively with Allen Ginsberg.

Claude Pélieu and Mary Beach met in 1962 and, until Claude's unfortunate passing in December of 2002, shared an exemplary rich and creative life. Traveling extensively while living primarily in Paris, New York and San Francisco, their existence was a bohemian adventure during which they ceaselessly explored and continuously created.

With a keen and graceful eye they deconstruct, critique and reinterpret the classical and contemporary worlds of art and media, while creating striking new works of wit and beauty -- drawing subconscious associations that are both mysterious and poetic.

Long hailed in Claude's native France as the natural inheritors of the Surrealist legacy (a direct line has been drawn by French critics from Picasso and Braque to Schwitters and Duchamp to Warhol and Pélieu), their works are highly prized and respected.


However, in Mary's native America, the pair remains relatively unknown, their work still awaits discovery by both mainstream critics and collectors. Mary passed away on January 26, 2006, after a long illness. Up until a week before she passed, Mary was still drawing and painting. She was contemplating a new series of ink drawings.

If you would like to see a slideshow comprised of Mary Beach and Claude Pelieu's Collages which they created later in their lives, please visit this link: Ginger Eades Tribute to Mary & Claude (Dedicated to Pam)    

Linsey Kuhn: Skater, Artist, Old Skool DIY

Is there a cerebral connection somewhere between art and skateboarding? For some people skating is an art, for others art has nothing to do with skating. Then there are those who combine these two things to form a lifestyle.

Lindsey Kuhn has found a way to turn his passions into career, and has been both skating and creating art for over three decades. He was born in Evanston, IL, but grew up on the coast of Mississippi where the now infamous Swamp ramp(s) stood for over ten years. In 1983 he began screen-printing t-shirts primarily to pay for maintenance of the massive ramp. Those simple t-shirts have ballooned into an internationally known company called SWAMP. Today Lindsey is best known for his silk-screened rock posters for hundreds of bands like The Melvins, Tool, Atmosphere, AC/DC and more. Swamp also does custom printing and publishes work for other artists.

Lindsey moved to Austin, TX in 1990 and within a year started printing posters for Southern California’s L’imagerie Gallery. L’imagerie set up a small flat press shop in Austin produce rock posters for Frank Kozik, as well as, Serigraphs for other artists they represented. Such as Robert Crumb, Ed Roth, Robert Williams, Joe Colman, and others. While printing all this great art, Lindsey realized there was a demand for what he had been doing for years and seized the opportunity to learn from these lowbrow masters helping to revive the lost art of the Rock Poster. He has continued to create posters for over 20 years, keeping his D.I.Y. ethic alive by printing his own work as well as other artists from around the world through his print company called SWAMP, which is now located in Denver, CO.

In 1994, Lindsey started making Conspiracy Skateboards because of the lack of big skateboards in the industry at that time. Today, Conspiracy has grown into one of the few truly “independent” skate companies working with artists like Pushead, Stainboy & Angry Blue as well as having some of the best underground riders in the country. In the same year he started, with the help of longtime friend Tim Kerr, Nolie Records which released 19, 7”records & cd’s most of which were local Austin bands including Jack o’ Fire, Jesus Christ Superfly, Lord High Fixers, Fuckemos and Live at Emo’s, volume 2. In 2010 his first book, “Lure of the SWAMP”, was released. It compiled many of his Rock Posters that he made over the years. This year the second edition is out with bonus pages featuring more work up to his 20th Anniversary of making posters.

Lindsey has also done commercial work for X-box, Camel, Oakley, toured with the “Southern Comfort Music Experience”, as well as having art shows in Japan, Europe and all over America.

Lindsey has brought art, music and skateboarding together throughout his life paving the way for others to enjoy and hopefully make connections with his work.

Join Lindsey on Facebook to follow his every move!

Lindsey also owns Conspiracy Skateboards 

Lindsey Kuhn- The Alien Bowl

  

Ginger and friend Lindsey Kuhn in Mobile, Al

Charles Plymell & Bob Branaman