December 6, 1921 -
August 31, 2009 a fascinating and colorful
journey through life has come to an end for Isabel
Beaudoin, age 87, who died
Monday, August 31, 2009.
As a young girl, she and her sister and mother spent
summers on her grandparents’ farm near
Stephenson, Michigan.
It was life on “The Farm” that would later be the
inspiration for many of her paintings. Throughout her
career, Isabel’s artwork was shown in numerous regional,
national, and international exhibitions.
In 2006 an art exhibition
at Interfibers gallery, “Collection of Contrast”,
featured Isabel’s paintings with Wendy Carpenter’s woven
wall hangings. The 2006 Resorter Reporter article below
by Donna Marie Pocius describes the unique collaboration
with 2D and 3D artwork.
When you take one woman's
art and integrate it with another's, you get a
"Collection of Contrasts," the current exhibition at
Interfibers Design Gallery, Fish Creek. Paintings by
Isabel Beaudoin and hand-woven fiber by Wendy Carpenter
are recreated in new wall hangings, blending hard and
soft materials. "It is quite a mixed media,"
The idea for the
exhibition began during a conversation Carpenter had
with Lucy Roske, Isabeląs art agent. "One of the things
that struck me is that Wendy is going down the same path
(as Isabel)," Roske said. "These are two career
women artists who are not
inclined to work in a
prescribed technique. They
stray off being
typecast. They may fool you. Their work
is beyond a classification."
Roske brought a selection
of predominantly abstract paintings by Isabel to
Carpenter’s studio to be recreated. But how did it feel
to cut a painting to pieces? Roske, consulting directly
with Isabel said the artist "doesn't have ego tied up in
those pieces." "She enjoyed making them. If someone
has another idea on how to be creative with those, she
is willing to take the risk. She enjoyed making the
art, and if it can take a new form, she wants people to
see it
The current exhibition suggests women are risk takers in
today's art scene, according to Roske. "The person who
puts their work on the line and shows people their soul
through art is becoming a rarer and rarer commodity,"
Roske said. "While these ladies hope people will buy
their art, the primary goal was making the art." And
who is likely to buy pieces in the "Collection of
Contrasts" exhibition? "People familiar with my work
and Isabel's work will be interested," said Carpenter.
People can say, 'I have a piece from that collaborative
art exhibit; remember when they did that?'" To the
right is a wall hanging that Wendy wove with Isabel’s
cast paper, titled “four elements of Science” earth,
fire, air and water. |
Wendy
guides the client through a process of hanging
paper on the wall to determine the approximate
size and shape desired. With the client's
input she custom designs a fiber art form and
provides the client with a drawing to
preview. The drawing includes the design
drawn to scale with the wall dimensions, color
layout and estimated price and date for
completion. Wendy has designed fiber wall
sculptures and hangings for over 30 years
Daryl
Asbury, a tonalist oil painter often depicting the
fleeting light of Dusk & Dawn, combined with his
sense of the primordial.
