Elizabeth Joan Gumnick

Then and Now

Which one's more adorable, then or now? You be the judge.

Could she be any cuter? Artsy-Fartsy bride shot

Which one is more adorable? (2 votes) Beth just keeps getting cuter and cuter. 100% It’s hard to decide. 0% Don’t make me pick one. 0% Both are equally adorable. 0% Message (ENTER to confirm)

Through the Years

School picture, 1976–77 school year

“The twins”—Beth and Ed at Mary and John’s wedding

“The twins”—Beth and Ed, Houston, 2008

Love and Pounds

Beth at her heaviest	Beth at her skinniest	my favorite skinny picture	Beth at her mediumest.
Beth and Rich

Beth's Art

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Theater is my career, but painting is my current passion. I started painting about in 1998 because I felt pretty much done with a lot of the artistic goals I had set for myself, getting a job in theater, directing on the stages of the Chattanooga Theatre Centre, and I needed something else, another outlet for my artistic energy. I had started collecting contemporary folk, outsider, visionary, untrained (whatever you want to call it, take your pick) art after being exposed to it through my employer Ann Law when I worked at Barking Legs Theater who was an avid fan, then I visited Paradise Gardens in Summerville GA, home of Howard Finster. That really got me going. After collecting art for a while, I decided to try painting for myself, since I had always liked art and drawing and such but had never really tried to learn to paint.

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After I had built up an inventory (that's what you call it when you have a bunch of paintings leaning against the walls of your house that you don't know what to do with) I started selling them on ebay (where I had also purchased many works myself). I sold maybe 100 paintings on ebay, some for next to nothing, and got some exposure and made a little (very little) money, enough to restock my paints at least.

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Later on I was "discovered" by a local gallery owner and a couple shop owners here and there, and my paintings started hanging in places where people could buy them, including FolkFest 2005, a big folk art show in Atlanta each year. Currently they hang in Winder Binder, a hip little gallery/shop on Frazier Ave., in Chattanooga's Northshore (way hip touristy popular area) and in Lola's, in Roswell, GA. I have also been branching out into doing art festivals and looking for galleries outside of Chattanooga to sell my art. Someday maybe I'll retire from the world of teaching and Rich and I can live in a little shack by the beach with lots of dogs and cats and paint and build things out of wood all day and put a sign out in the yard for passersby to sell them to when we need grocery money.

A girl can dream.