Becky Collins Paints Bridges Between Artists
“From my earliest memories, I just remember being creative,” says Artist Becky Collins. She recalls watching her aunt paint a Cinderella mural on her wall and being engrossed for hours at the artistic process. As a child, her artistic expressions were criticized, making her feel that it was a waste of her time. When Collins had children of her own, she found that she couldn’t help throwing all of her artistic energy into any project they were working on. She delighted in helping them make things up, or getting to teach them a new kind of artistic method. “My creative juices started to resurface,” she says. “Everything about creativity — my brain just goes crazy for it!”
Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Collins joined the United States Army on the delayed entry program and went off to boot camp after graduating high school. Once she had completed boot camp, Collins went on to Airborne School and served five and a half years stationed in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. During her station she was sent off for the Gulf War/Desert Storm, where she met her husband. After returning home, Collins and her husband started a family, and she became a decorative painter. When her family decided to move to Polk County, NC, she thought she would simply move her decorating business along with her. Realizing that making her business profitable would require her to travel to bigger cities, Collins decided to rent a studio in town and try her hand as a visual artist, particularly with her medium of choice — Encaustic.
A friend had recently introduced Collins to Encaustic, the artistic process of heating beeswax to a molten resin and then using it to paint on canvas. Collins loves the multi-textural finish that Encaustic creates, as well as how it combines her love of bees with her love of art. The process was originally invented by the Mayans to create memorial portraits on the shrouds of their fallen royalty. Collins took a few classes on the process, and regularly attends the Encaustic camps in Seattle, WA. In 2016, she found out she had breast cancer and had to put her art on hold to devote her time to getting well again. The following year, her body was so weak from exhaustion and the sedentary lifestyle of cancer recovery that she had a painful disk protrusion in her back that required surgery to correct. Finally, Collins was well enough to get back to work. Then, the COVID pandemic shut everything down. “I’m just getting rolling with my vision from five years ago,” Collins laughs, lightheartedly.
Collins has created her own style of Encaustic, using acrylics in the same way, which she refers to as ‘faux encaustic.’ “I work with a lot of textures,” she says of her art. “The crustier and chunkier, the better.” She has also been doing a great deal of charity art work for the community, such as designing and painting a bumble bee style horse for downtown Tryon. She also sits on the boards of the Tryon International Film Festival and St Luke’s Foundation. She is also one of the founders of We Help, a division of The Equine Journey, which is a program that gives children in Polk County that wouldn’t normally be able to interact with horses the opportunity to do so. The goal of We Help is to bring food to food-insecure families.
Though she finds her work incredibly rewarding, Collins thought she could use her studio space for even more. Last year, she opened her doors to other female artists as not only a workspace, but also as a community art center where artists can come together. “What I’ve come to find is that being in a studio by yourself gets a little lonely,” she admits. “Just to have a little comradery and community is really beneficial to an artist in a lot of ways.”
Her studio, The Hive NC, is in a former school building in Mill Spring that is in the process of being renovated. Collins feels the location is ideal for what she is trying to do. “It’s a really perfect space for my studio,” she says. “It feels nostalgic and creative.” The Hive NC offers art classes, as well as open studios, in which artists are encouraged to bring in their works for discussion, advice, and even criticism. Collins likens it to the old-time sewing circles. “I’m focusing on women artists that want to get their mediums out into the world,” she explains. “I really want a creative circle. Whatever your medium is, bring it in and we’ll talk about it.” The Hive NC even offers mental health classes for artists to journal, meditate and do yoga.
Now 51, Collins is finally getting to live her dream of being a professional artist and hopes that her studio will provide opportunity and inspiration for other female artists. “The creative process is just life to me,” she says. “What I’d like to do is to build a community of artists that are friends with each other, that communicate with each other; and use the space to connect, collaborate and enjoy each other’s time.”
Collin’s Encaustic paintings are featured in the Tryon Art Gallery Walks on the last Friday of every month. Her studio is open for scheduling classes and events. You can also view her work online at: https://m.facebook.com/CreateinTheHiveNC/
Written by Meg Hale Brunton
Facebook @CreateinTheHiveNC
thrivehivestudio@gmail.com