Christopher Beaver is a self-taught mosaic and mixed media artist based in Placerville, Colorado. His artistic life is informed by decades of study in Animism and spiritual practice, as well as a deep personal interest in and study of feminism. In a magnificent amalgamation of his life’s work and studies, Beaver’s current body of work is focused on reinterpreting forgotten or demonized goddesses and representing them with the reverence and respect they truly deserve.

Beaver has always believed in the power of women. Raised in a home where stereotypical gender roles were the default, he watched his smart and capable mother manage their household, shouldering the weight of daily domestic and caregiving tasks, all while working a regular job. Beaver understood that she was the heart and hearth of their home. But he also saw the disparity between her labor and his father’s, and as the years passed he noticed again and again the vastly different expectations our society has for men and women. 

“How did we get here?” he asks. How did the powerful feminine forces he’s seen in motion all his life become relegated to primarily subservient, domestic roles? Why have we come to expect women to be more responsible, and to do more and more labor, all while granting them less authority?

His current exhibition, Mother Church, is the culmination of a lifelong study and appreciation of the feminine, the great Mystery, and the Divine. Set in a domestic home, the exhibition allows the viewer to experience familiar spaces and household objects, feeling the presence of the feminine woven into ordinary aspects of daily life. As viewers interact with the pieces in the show, they transform them from dining tables to altars, from kitchen knives into ceremonial althames, and from ironing boards into shrines.