"MY LIVING OCEANS SERIES IS MY RESPONSE AND GROWING CONNECTION TO THE HEALTH OF OUR OCEANS AND PLANET. STRANGELY ENOUGH THIS HAPPENED THROUGH THE HUMPBACK WHALE, WHICH BEGAN PERSISTENTLY SHOWING UP IN 2018. MY RELATIONSHIP TO THE OCEANS DRAMATICALLY SHIFTED BY 2019 WHEN I FIRST MET THESE HUMPBACKS IN MAUI, AND LATER SWAM WITH THEM IN THE PROTECTED WATERS OF TONGA.
BY JANUARY 2020, I CREATED AND IMPLEMENTED MY LIVING OCEANS DONATION PROGRAM. FOR EACH ARTWORK SALE, I DONATE AT LEAST 10% AND UPWARDS TO 100% FROM MY SALE PROCEEDS TO CAREFULLY VETTED ORGANIZATIONS DOING THE IMPORTANT WORK OF RESTORING AND SAFEGUARDING THE OCEANS.
MY WISH IS THAT MY ART, CURATION AND OCEAN PHILANTHROPY INSPIRES A CONNECTION TO ONE'S OWN UNIQUE WAY OF FOSTERING STEWARDSHIP FOR ALL LIFE ON THIS PLANET."
- BETTY JO COSTANZO
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Betty Jo Costanzo’s award-winning art has been described as “getting lost with a purpose” and “what a place would be like if you belonged there.”
Her influences are multi-faceted and encompass many art disciplines. The late and great Jay DeFeo, her longtime mentor and friend, continues to be the most significant. Her works are held in corporate, private and public collections worldwide, and her public exhibitions and residencies span four decades regionally and internationally.
A former associate professor at California College of the Arts, she has also worked and taught around the world, including England, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Cyprus. She now maintains a full-time studio practice based in Seattle, Washington.
Her latest LIVING OCEANS series, Curatorial Ocean Projects, and Ocean Philanthropy are a call to action for all who love the beauty of our planet Earth.
"I am a USA-based interdisciplinary artist recognized for my large-scale abstract oil paintings, video, and LIVING OCEANS DONATION Program.
Through my camera lens, I see movement paintings about to happen. The deeper the impression, the more I can translate these experiences into my video editing and then my painting process.
Inside the studio, these sounds, videos and paintings, in all stages, surround me. It is not any one painting, video, or sound bite, but a time-based installation that prompts me physically to translate the fluidity onto painted surfaces. I work best on a larger scale where I move freely from one work to another.
In October 2019, I went to Tonga to swim with the Humpback Whales. This life-changing experience has become the propulsion for my painting, curatorial projects, and Ocean Philanthropy."
