NORTHERN VIRGINIA ART BEAT
By Kevin Mellema

Falls Church News Press
nia-art-beat.html
June 18 2009
North Virginia

Lara Beaudry Byer: Amazing Mothers, at the Lee Arts Center, Mini
Gallery (5722 Lee Highway, Arlington). The event runs through June
24. Lee Center’s hours are Monday – Friday, 9:30 a.m. – 10 p.m.,
and Saturday 9:30 a.m. – 6 p.m. For details, call 703-228-0559,
or visit

Lara Byer has a dozen ceramic pieces on view here dealing with
motherhood. In fact, these works are portraits of specific Arlington
County mothers she interviewed for this project. Her depictions of
women and children have a rather generic quality about them; it’s
their context and spirit that Byer is keyed into and wants us to
recognize and appreciate.

Virtually all of these women have some extraordinary circumstance
that forms their daily existence. Several mothers have children with
disabilities, or special needs. The two glazed terra cotta house-like
structures in "Journey from New Orleans" depict one mother’s relocation
to Arlington County in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The interview
quote Byer provides us dwells not on her loss, but rather on her
overwhelming joy and relief at finding furnished housing and clothes
donated (we assume) by the community in her new home. More than
anything, she seems shocked to find a community of children with
Rett Syndrome, like one of her children. Byer’s portrait piece is
appropriately filled with joy and a sense of community.

Two of the most engaging images here deal with mothers of adopted
children. "Harmony" depicts a seated mother holding a child in her
arms. Their wrap flows across the bowl form and connects to another
woman, the birth mother. The mother’s "L" sees the situation as a
stabilizing triangle of three.

Another mother of Armenian descent had a child of her own, and
then adopted a child from Armenia. Byer’s ceramic tile image shows
her and her child beside a tree, from which she plucks a swaddled
baby. It’s as if she’s picking fruit from the tree of life. It has
a heroic fable like air about it that, while specific in intent,
has a universal quality. It’s arguably the best piece here.