Artist displays self-portraits in Durham gallery

After spending a year in the Big Apple, North Carolinian Beverly McIver is bringing a New York state of mind to her latest collection of paintings, now on display at the Craven Allen Gallery in Durham.

The paintings are inspired by the diverse people McIver saw while living in New York after a foundation gave her free studio space for one year. She just moved back to North Carolina three weeks ago, and she brought her newest pieces of art, which are all less than a year old, with her.

McIver said she was inspired mostly by the people she would see while riding the subway and the musicians performing in the subway tunnels.

She said she was especially struck by a group of subway musicians who were around 50 years old that she passed almost every day.

She said they played like they were in Carnegie Hall.

“These guys will never be at Carnegie Hall, but that’s not stopping them from singing and doing what they love,” she said. “It was obvious that they absolutely loved what they did, and they were willing to do what they loved even if their platform was that of the subway.”

But it wasn’t only the people she saw that became subjects for her art, she said. Most of her pieces are self-portraits. And they reflect the delights and the difficulties she faced while transitioning from a life in North Carolina to a life in the big city.

John Bloedorn, co-owner of the Craven Allen Gallery, said McIver’s point of view as an African-American woman is one of the most powerful aspects of her work.

He said she’s not afraid to show herself in any situation.

“She’s just a wonderful human being who cuts to the bone with her incredibly revealing portraits,” he said.

Kathryn DeMarco, the gallery director at Craven Allen Gallery, said McIver’s paintings have created a lot of conversation in the gallery because they are so thought-provoking.

“It’s the way that she doesn’t hide anything,” she said. “That’s what’s really great about this particular show — you’re seeing Beverly.”

McIver said her self-portraits give her a platform from which she can explore her emotions and then help other people deal with their emotions. Her paintings show her in many different emotional states — from contentment to depression.

“However I’m feeling, even if I’m not aware I’m feeling that way consciously, it just comes out in the studio,” she said. “I want to give other people permission to feel human emotions and not to feel judged by it so much.”

One of McIver’s most poignant paintings depicts her wearing a dress for the first time after having a breast reduction that took six pounds off of her chest.

“I love being able to use painting as my voice to talk about things that are important to me,” she said. “I love painting about my experiences — through it, I can bring an awareness of people who are in the margin.”

McIver was a psychology major when she began her undergraduate career and only switched to art after finding she enjoyed a drawing class she took as an elective.

“I used to do drawing in high school but didn’t want to major in art because I thought all artists were poor, and I didn’t want to be poor,” she said.

But when it came time for her to leave New York City after devoting a year to painting, she didn’t want to go.

“The experience of living in a place that’s very different from what I’m used to was really fantastic, and it was a leap of faith,” she said. “But it was just a fabulous investment in myself.”

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