Marthanna Yater
August 17, 2016
It is August 17, 2016, and I am in the mountains of western North Carolina. I came here for the August 13th opening of my exhibition, Growing Together, at the T.R.A.C gallery in Burnsville. But today, I and am spending time with my long-time friend and fellow artist, Miss Betty Badass, Elizabeth Brim.
I met Elizabeth in 1984 at the Penland School of Crafts, where we were both core fellows. I was studying photography, and she was there to forge the identity of women in iron and herself into legendary status. She just didn’t know it yet.
Elizabeth grew up in G-e-o-r-g-i-a. With a drawl as long as the Mississippi River, she is a southern belle with a saucy side of badassery. Miss Betty is a Steel Magnolia.
Elizabeth completed an MFA in printmaking from the University of Georgia in 1979. With a Master’s Degree tucked neatly under her pearls, she first came to Penland to study ceramics to prepare her for teaching clay at Columbus College (now University).
Clay was ok, but Miss Betty Badass wanted to explore metals. So she did. And it has made her the hammer-swinging, iron-bending, pearl-wearing woman that we know today.
Miss Betty is no ordinary blacksmith. Elizabeth was raised on frills and fairy tales, southern charm and etiquette. She was a proper and genteel southern lady, a mint julep of our generation. She was brought up with Southern expectations regarding how a lady should behave and with the understanding that men took care of their women. She was raised to be an Apple Pie Betty and to wear aprons and pearls.
But life changed for Miss Betty at Penland, where, while studying metals and jewelry-making, she ventured into the Iron studio to make tools for a project. Fascinated by the forge, she soon found herself on the way to becoming a smithy.
How did this go over with her southern mama and husband back home? Ummm, not so well. Her mama did not approve of blacksmithing, stating that it was not at all lady-like. Undaunted, Miss Betty donned her pearls, held fast to her gentility, and returned to the soot and fire. Her husband soon faded into memory as Elizabeth’s newfound expression moved her forward and freed her from the rules of conformity.
Mama instilled deep-rooted tradition in Elizabeth's upbringing; and, as Elizabeth honed her skills in hot iron, she learned to continue that tradition in her own way and has remained true to her feminine aesthetic in iron.
Elizabeth crafts fancy shoes, aprons, tiaras, frilly pillows and the like, but in hard metal, not delicate fabric. She is best known for her invention of the steel inflation technique, which is demonstrated in a video at Penland School of Crafts gallery and Visitor’s Center and can be accessed on YouTube.
As we chatted in the Pines at Penland this afternoon, we watched another YouTube video, episode seven of “Raw Craft”, shot in the Penland iron studio and starring our very own Miss Betty Badass with Anthony Bourdain.
“Elizabeth is a perfect example of somebody who’s chosen to go against the grain, who’s chosen to do a difficult thing, who’s decided to follow a passion. She’s a perfect example of the type of people we’re celebrating: an artist, a professional, an educator, somebody unlike just about everybody else.” – Anthony Bourdain
Elizabeth remains connected with family in Georgia but calls Penland home. Her studio is just down the road a piece from Penland School. She is a sought after blacksmithing instructor and an award-winning exhibiting artist and teacher, having taught at Penland, (NC), Haystack School of Crafts, (ME), Peters Valley Craft Center, (NJ), and workshops across the country. Her artwork models a modern femininity that is all her own.
https://www.marthannayaterphotography.com
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