An artistic reality

Bethany Faile, a senior art major at Wright State University, uses photography and painting to interpret the world around her. (Photos by Chris Snyder)

Bethany Faile, a senior art major at Wright State University, finds artistic ways to showcase life’s unseen moments to illustrate their unforgettable importance.

“I love to paint … but before I got to Wright State, I didn’t realize what kind of work painting was,” Faile said. “It takes a lot of concentration and you have to be super patient.”

And when she reaches the finished work, she enjoys seeing how all the details came together to make a piece of art and remembering why she chose to major in it.

Faile finds beauty in painting faces.

“They’re just the thing that we connect with. … I always catch myself drawing faces. It’s what I’ve done ever since I was little,” she said. “I try to create life in my painting, and with that try to show different sides of life that might not always be visible to the eye.”

Through photography, she interprets life differently.

“Painting and drawing is a lot about taking what is real and interpreting it myself,” said Faile. “With photography, you’re dealing with the reality, whereas, painting is dealing with fantasy.”

Faile grew up in North Carolina and Florida before moving to Ohio. She lives with her father, David Faile, a pastor at First Baptist Church of Kettering, and her mother, MaryBeth Faile, a former American Sign Language instructor at Wright State, and four siblings. She has a brother who also attends Wright State and her youngest two siblings are adopted from the deaf community in China.

Having siblings who are internationally adopted and deaf brings new challenges and compassion Faile hasn’t had before. She has observed emotional and mental scars in her adopted siblings.

“The fact that they’re adopted has put this love in my heart,” Faile said. “Adoption is an option. It’s one of the hardest things you could ever do, but it taught me a lot of how much God loves everybody, and how we should imitate his love by giving these kids a better chance of living this life fully.”

Since her siblings were adopted, Faile has also learned a new art — sign language. She has also been able to better communicate with a deaf uncle.

“I didn’t talk to him a lot, and this year I’ve had full conversations with my uncle for the first time, which is pretty exciting,” she said. “I enjoy being able to speak another language.”

Faile also translates for deaf customers while working at Chick-Fil-A.

Sign language is an affective part of her life, similar to the still life she captures when photographing everyday life.

“The reality of photography is what makes it beautiful to me, because it can be a simple picture of a sink or food at a dinner table or my brother doing his homework,” Faile said. “But I think it’s rather beautiful since it’s a moment in time that actually happened.”

Faile’s passion for creating doesn’t end there. She has filmed several wedding for friends and other types of movies. She also helps in her church’s youth group and sings in her church’s worship band.

Faile is still discovering the direction she would like to take to further her interest in art.

“I like creating in many different ways,” she said, “but this year I am mainly focusing in on painting and photography.”