James Beoddy - Part 1Columbus, Ohio

~Beoddy

A slideshow containing images by photographer Fred Scruton.

Midwest Region

Midwest

James Beoddy (1951 – 2015)

AKA Goblinhood, AKA CHIMERA

Art Type or Medium: Drawing; Painting; Performance

Viewable: no

Secular or Religious: Secular

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David Greene painting, 2012 portrait, James Beoddy drawing

James Beoddy recalled that he began to draw when he was about four or five years old, and despite having attended college for a couple of years, he was primarily a self-taught artist.  Beginning in 2000, he taught himself to paint in anaglyphic and ChromaDepth® 3-D.  A longtime passionate advocate for freedom of expression, Beoddy’s work was shown in a national symposium on censorship, in Anchorage Alaska, in 1992.  He was a longtime “underground cartoonist” primarily with The Columbus Free Press

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Cover, Free Press 40th anniversary issue
Beoddy 002
2001 Free Press issue
Beoddy 001
Free Press 25th anniversary issue

 

As a performance artist, Beoddy was a fixture in Columbus, Ohio as the masked Goblinhood, a “volunteer shaman” then later as half “Goblinhood” half “Chimera” his female alter-ego.

James Beoddy Comfest 2012 performance; Columbus, OH 2012
James Beoddy Comfest 2012 performance
James Beoddy after Comfest 2012 performance; Columbus, OH 2012
Goblinhood and Chim after Beoddy’s Comfest 2012 performance
James Beoddy Comfest 2013 performance; Columbus, OH 2013
James Beoddy Comfest 2013 performance
Underground Comix

(hand-published by Beoddy)

Goblinhood 2012 on Calaméo

from “Golbinhood 2012”
sample pages from “Golbinhood 2012”
sample pages from “Golbinhood 2012”
from “Golbinhood 2012”

 

​Goblinhood Comix & Poems on Calaméo

“Goblinhood’s Comix and Poems”

sample pages from “Goblinhood’s Comix and Poems”
sample pages from “Goblinhood’s Comix and Poems”
Sample page, James Beoddy's “Goblinhood’s Comix and Poems”

Chim’s Pookarama Comix on Calaméo

additional Beoddy comix on Calaméo

 

James Beoddy; Columbus, OH 2010
4×8′ plywood with cut-outs used for performances

 

Anaglyphic Drawings

(approx 22 x 28 inches, ca 2002-12). These are meant to be viewed through anaglyphic 3-D red and blue lens glasses.  Notes in the margins specify left or right eye for which lens color.

Beoddy anaglyph drawing

Beoddy anaglyph drawing
Beoddy anaglyph drawing

 

Chromadepth Drawings

(approx 22 x 28 inches, ca 2002-06). These are meant to be viewed through ChromaDepth® 3-D glasses.

Beoddy ChromaDepth® drawing

Beoddy ChromaDepth® drawing

Beoddy ChromaDepth® drawing

 

Project Oberon

(approx 22 x 28 inches, ca 2006-14). These are meant to be viewed through anaglyphic 3-D glasses.  Beoddy was deeply immersed in 3-D exploration several years before the world went 3-D Avator crazy in 2009, and through both his artworks and performances, he seems to have anticipated the contemporary culture-wide interest in politics of gender fluidity and identity.

Project Oberon drawing
Project Oberon drawing
Project Oberon drawing

 

Artworks by Chimera, James Beoddy’s Female Alter-ego

(painted with Beoddy’s left-hand by “Chim”)  Beoddy in 2011: “Following the literary debut of my new “Chimera” character  (see 2011 Intro to GOBLINHOOD, 2012), right-handed Beoddy expanded Chim’s creative potential, giving her the use of his left hand to draw with.  Beoddy sometimes strengthens the lines, fills in the dark areas, and anaglyphs the pictures for 3-D.  But the drawings are Chim’s.”  (Chimera’s drawings are approximately 8.5 x 11 inches)

Chimera drawing

Chimera drawing

Chimera drawing
 
Late Large Scale Drawings

(approx 3 x 4 feet, 2015)

large Beoddy drawing
large Beoddy drawing of Reva
Beoddy’s dog Reva
large Beoddy drawing

 

Final Exhibition, Beoddy Retrospective at the Vanderelli Room in Columbus, Ohio 2015
James Beoddy, Amber Groome, Vanderelli Room retrospective, Columbus, OH 2015
James Beoddy, Amber Groome, Vanderelli Room retrospective, Columbus, OH 2015
James Beoddy's Vanderelli Room retrospective, Columbus, OH 2015
James Beoddy’s Vanderelli Room retrospective, Columbus, OH 2015

 

Funeral, Scattering of Ashes in Goodale Park

near the stage where James Beoddy performed at Confest (Community Festival) in Columbus, Ohio

Scattering of ashes, Goodale Park, near Comfest stage; Columbus, OH 2015

Scattering of ashes, Goodale Park, near Comfest stage; Columbus, OH 2015
Scattering of ashes, Goodale Park, near Comfest stage; Columbus, OH 2015

 

Dr. Jay Hanes, my former colleague at West Penn University, interviewed Jim Beoddy (ca 1993) for his doctoral dissertation, and one day in the hallway at school he suggested that I seek him out. Thanks also to Suzanne Patzer of the Columbus Free Press for initiating my line of communication with the reclusive, but personally accessible Jim.

Beoddy’s  interest in free expression carried over into his facility with multiple mediums:  comics & illustration, performance art, writing, painting, and 3-D drawing.  His out-of-body alter-egos Goblinhood and Chimera made for an ever-present Greek chorus– hovering over his consciousness and whispering their thoughts about “Beoddy” (and everything else) into Jim’s ear.

See also:

External resources: