Author(s): Aurora De Leucio

Artists

"Paint can flow like a river, it can be gentle, it can be violent, and in its arrangement, it can twist and turn to mirror my moods, my personality."Tamara Bekier: Between Worlds is a book which documents the exhibition bearing the same title and presented at the Art Gallery of Ballarat in the artist's ninety-second year.The artwork for the exhibition spans four decades of prolific creative output. Throughout this period the artist has focused on giving expression to her memories and experiences of the displaced, the dispossessed and the plight of women - and her intimate understanding of the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit.In recording the exhibition, this book describes the artist's life and art: recounting her survival as a child and adolescent in the Second World War, her hardships as an immigrant, and her influences, approaches and processes as an artist, beginning her life as a painter only in the second half of her life.This book offers the reader an opportunity to understand Tim Costello's appreciation of Bekier as an artist who, through her art, has not only brought beauty to the world but brought about her own emotional healing; and affirms Milovoy Micich's understanding of Bekier as an artist "deserving of every accolade, a true master artist, and a living treasure".