Artist's work on display at Commissioner Hall's office

Beeching This month, local artist David Beeching will have his copper print etchings and ceramic tea pots on display in Lee County Commissioner Tammy Hall's office through Oct. 31. The copper plate etchings depict various scenes from Beeching's childhood in Alberta, Canada, in the 1940s. The ceramic teapot collection features chimeras as seen on atop Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The public is welcome to view the artwork and learn more about Beeching. The artwork is also for sale.

"The arts are an important part of the cultural development of our community," said Hall, who displays different artists in her commission office throughout the year. "I believe that government can play an important role in providing assistance in public awareness, developing the use of public spaces for display and interaction of art, and for the encouragement and commitment of continued financial support, both public and private, of all the arts."

Hall's office is on the first floor of the Old County Courthouse, 2120 Main Street in downtown Fort Myers. Office hours are Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Beeching is a ceramic artist and painter, born in 1938 and raised in Alberta, Canada. His father was a Royal Canadian Mountie whom he idolized. His parents were strict Catholics, which may explain why religious images crop up in his work.

His teapots incorporate sculptural creatures, which look down from the top of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and glaze paintings on the pottery body. These chimeras (like gargoyles) were used to spook people into the church.

As a young man, he briefly attended the University of Alberta, before detouring for 40 years in sales/marketing jobs in various cities and countries. Beeching has studied painting at Oxbow, the summer school of the Chicago Art Institute, The Palette & Chisel Academy under Andrew Conklin and Clayton Beck.

In 2003 Beeching enrolled in ceramics at the College of DuPage in Chicago where he has studied for five years mentored by Professor Marina Kuchinski.

Each of the teapots are unique and reflect the echoes of history that the artist feels when he's in a museum and looks into the past through the work of other ceramic artists.

Beeching lives with his wife in Fort Myers.