
Bethany Altschwager
The Street Layers series started in 2015 when I was earning my art therapy credentials. I worked multiple jobs, seven days a week, sometimes three different places in a single day. I photographed graffiti and textures I found on the streets en route to each position to try to stay oriented and grounded. At the end of the day, I collaged photographs from each location into a single image. On the surface, the titles read as plausible cross streets in New York neighborhoods. In reality, the titles represent new, liminal spaces that I’ve created that do not exist in physical reality.
These images represent the confluence of time, space, and the cycles of renewal and decay. Preserving images of that which, by its nature, will be washed away, painted over, reconstructed, repaired, or torn down highlights the tension between holding on and letting go. Images in these layers break apart so they can come back together in new configurations. I continue this practice as a form of visual journaling. Over the past decade, I have amassed a broad palette of colors, brush strokes, stickers, signs, rust, and memories, and a catalog of over 700 works.
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