Art Reception with Beverly Rayner

Join us for First Friday at Tumbleweed Found as we welcome acclaimed Santa Cruz artist Beverly Rayner, whose imaginative mixed media works bring together photography, found objects, and unexpected materials to explore the curious, humorous, and sometimes darker complexities of human experience. Beverly’s fascination with discarded objects began in childhood, growing up in a small Connecticut town where she spent time exploring barns and junk shops. Her father, a master of “making something out of nothing,” taught her the possibilities of transforming castoffs into something new. Her mother inspired an equally enduring love of photography. At around eleven years old, Beverly began taking pictures obsessively with a hand-me-down Brownie camera, then a Polaroid, and she eventually ended up falling in love with the darkroom. Over time, these two passions—photography and making things—merged into an artistic practice that has spanned more than 40 years. Beverly creates singular, often sculptural works that blur the boundaries between photography, assemblage, and storytelling. Incorporating everything from antique/alternative photographic processes, tintypes, daguerreotypes, and found photographs to x-rays, wax, paint, and salvaged objects, she transforms familiar materials into unexpected and thought-provoking compositions. Her work explores the uncertain spaces where fact and fiction overlap, where humor meets darkness, and where our personal histories and perceptions shape how we understand the world. Each piece invites us to look more closely, question what we see, and discover meaning in the unexpected. Beverly is represented by Themes + Projects in San Francisco and has exhibited extensively in galleries and museums nationally and internationally. Her work is held in numerous museum collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Berkeley Art Museum; Oakland Museum of California; Crocker Art Museum; and San Jose Museum of Art.

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