Betty Goodwin
Reflection
Through out a maze of circular marks, Canadian artist Betty Goodwin demonstrates a understanding of form and atmosphere unlike most people. Her work deals with gestural or figurative moment in a highly emotional way that is sympathetic of the subject matter and still faces it head on. The fragility within the quality of line, reflects a grief or mourning that is very personal to the artist. Goodwin was no stranger to heartache as she tragically lost her father when she was only a child. Her only son then died of a drug overdose at the age of 30. These two events propelled the artist to create works that have a therapeutic context pinned to them, as the obsessive cylindrical motion found within her works contain a longing to understand the situations she had found herself in. A lot of her works resemble empty nests, I believe this is an deliberate attempt to deal with the grief the artist would have been subjected to after the death of her only son. The memory of an object is apparent through out the artist work. Photographs alongside, both sentimental and found objects were important influences within the artist practise. As she was deeply intrigued by traces of a past life found there within. Her etching of clothing go to illustrate that statement, where the artist used clothing belonging to people closet to her to print straight from. this level of honest is intrinsically embedded within everything the artist does.Transitions are often a difficult, however essential part of life, and Betty Goodwin captures them flawlessly. Within these still contemporary images below, a figure or soul appears to be separating from its physical body. This haunting image depicts with vivid emotion the feelings which are often brought to the surface throughout these hard points in our lives. Never one to shy away from seeming grotesque imagery, the muted colour scheme and large scale aids the overall impact of the images, and immerses the viewer to become an extension of the work, carrying emotional charged readings towards these works, are all but to easy, as the artist demonstrates a keen knowledge of the human form through a variety of mediums.
Conversationally the imagery translate as a language of imitation, working predominantly as a dialogue to communicate the inner most workings of the human experience.
Artist Quotations
"Drawing is the most inalienable medium. It is private; it practically doesn't have an audience in mind, just the artist's expression." Betty Goodwin
"I deal with the human body,...other times it is like the memory of the body,... I guess these are elements that i need to best express what I am thinking about. But it is my true concerns do take in the body and its various aspects, even in terms of time or passage. It's all concerning humanity" - Betty Goodwin 1995
Sources
No comments:
Post a Comment