Renée Bouchard, "Anonymous Citizen in Blue-Green"
2023
Acrylic and colored pencil on canvas
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
Anonymous Citizen in Blue-Green is sort of tongue in cheek for people’s obsession with hue. It takes the stance that color is unique to the viewer, aiming to synchronize nature's mutability to that of identity. Rather than attempting to define personhood, I believe in the possibility of a world which is always changing through interpersonal transformation and freedom. For me, painting and child rearing are about organizing chaos. I was inspired by the visual dialogue created during collaboration with my young child before his use of written and spoken language. While caregiving, I was quietly resourcing his scribbling stage in my work as well as reusing his child’s brushes; all while understanding the statistics for caregivers, historically known to be primarily women, equates to trillions of dollars in unwaged labor across the globe. I am inspired by Joan Mitchell, Milton Avery, and Basquiat.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Escaping the confines of one reality and entering an alternate reality is often where I find meaning within the complexity of the mind and the emotions it houses. I work in spurts on several different paintings at once, methodically rotating them. I intersect working from observation with exploring internal spaces like memory and the present act of painting. I see collaboration as a means to interrupt my own gaze on the work and widen my visual vocabulary. Since my son was in the womb, I began intersecting mothering with my home studio practice. On occasions, my young child participated with me in the studio making space for chance while passing on traditional skills.
The Anonymous Citizen series aims to challenge the idea of naming, exploring ideas of “we” versus the individual. I am constantly investigating the use of color as if it were a machine. The focus is on the relationships of colors versus color in isolation, which can be seen as a metaphor for seeing myself in others when critiquing imperialism as a system, not an event. Audre Lourde says, “hate functions to distort beauty and internal power.”
My work is an ongoing question: how to build a common world when the one we inhabit I oppose. Rather than attempting to define personhood, I believe in the possibility of a world which is always changing through interpersonal transformation and freedom.
ARTIST BIO
Born to French-Canadian parents, Renée Bouchard has lived and exhibited her abstract-representational paintings throughout New England. Some of her recent exhibitions include: “Down the Rabbit Hole” at Lights Out Gallery in Norway, ME, “Still Processing” at Artspace New Haven, “Kaleidoscopic Pathos” at the Vermont State House's Governor's Gallery, “We the People” at Southern Vermont College, “Inside the Outside” at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Gallery 51, as well as shows at the Bennington Museum, and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center, the Cooper Union, Artspace New Haven, and the Kate Millett Art Colony for Women. She has received grants from the: Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and the Vermont Arts Council. She received her BFA from the Maine College of Art in 1999 and her MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2021. Renée is a volunteer advocate/counselor for the Project Against Violent Encounters. She lives and works in between North Bennington, Vermont and Greenwich, New York with her young child and dog.
2023
Acrylic and colored pencil on canvas
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
Anonymous Citizen in Blue-Green is sort of tongue in cheek for people’s obsession with hue. It takes the stance that color is unique to the viewer, aiming to synchronize nature's mutability to that of identity. Rather than attempting to define personhood, I believe in the possibility of a world which is always changing through interpersonal transformation and freedom. For me, painting and child rearing are about organizing chaos. I was inspired by the visual dialogue created during collaboration with my young child before his use of written and spoken language. While caregiving, I was quietly resourcing his scribbling stage in my work as well as reusing his child’s brushes; all while understanding the statistics for caregivers, historically known to be primarily women, equates to trillions of dollars in unwaged labor across the globe. I am inspired by Joan Mitchell, Milton Avery, and Basquiat.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Escaping the confines of one reality and entering an alternate reality is often where I find meaning within the complexity of the mind and the emotions it houses. I work in spurts on several different paintings at once, methodically rotating them. I intersect working from observation with exploring internal spaces like memory and the present act of painting. I see collaboration as a means to interrupt my own gaze on the work and widen my visual vocabulary. Since my son was in the womb, I began intersecting mothering with my home studio practice. On occasions, my young child participated with me in the studio making space for chance while passing on traditional skills.
The Anonymous Citizen series aims to challenge the idea of naming, exploring ideas of “we” versus the individual. I am constantly investigating the use of color as if it were a machine. The focus is on the relationships of colors versus color in isolation, which can be seen as a metaphor for seeing myself in others when critiquing imperialism as a system, not an event. Audre Lourde says, “hate functions to distort beauty and internal power.”
My work is an ongoing question: how to build a common world when the one we inhabit I oppose. Rather than attempting to define personhood, I believe in the possibility of a world which is always changing through interpersonal transformation and freedom.
ARTIST BIO
Born to French-Canadian parents, Renée Bouchard has lived and exhibited her abstract-representational paintings throughout New England. Some of her recent exhibitions include: “Down the Rabbit Hole” at Lights Out Gallery in Norway, ME, “Still Processing” at Artspace New Haven, “Kaleidoscopic Pathos” at the Vermont State House's Governor's Gallery, “We the People” at Southern Vermont College, “Inside the Outside” at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Gallery 51, as well as shows at the Bennington Museum, and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center, the Cooper Union, Artspace New Haven, and the Kate Millett Art Colony for Women. She has received grants from the: Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and the Vermont Arts Council. She received her BFA from the Maine College of Art in 1999 and her MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2021. Renée is a volunteer advocate/counselor for the Project Against Violent Encounters. She lives and works in between North Bennington, Vermont and Greenwich, New York with her young child and dog.
2023
Acrylic and colored pencil on canvas
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
Anonymous Citizen in Blue-Green is sort of tongue in cheek for people’s obsession with hue. It takes the stance that color is unique to the viewer, aiming to synchronize nature's mutability to that of identity. Rather than attempting to define personhood, I believe in the possibility of a world which is always changing through interpersonal transformation and freedom. For me, painting and child rearing are about organizing chaos. I was inspired by the visual dialogue created during collaboration with my young child before his use of written and spoken language. While caregiving, I was quietly resourcing his scribbling stage in my work as well as reusing his child’s brushes; all while understanding the statistics for caregivers, historically known to be primarily women, equates to trillions of dollars in unwaged labor across the globe. I am inspired by Joan Mitchell, Milton Avery, and Basquiat.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Escaping the confines of one reality and entering an alternate reality is often where I find meaning within the complexity of the mind and the emotions it houses. I work in spurts on several different paintings at once, methodically rotating them. I intersect working from observation with exploring internal spaces like memory and the present act of painting. I see collaboration as a means to interrupt my own gaze on the work and widen my visual vocabulary. Since my son was in the womb, I began intersecting mothering with my home studio practice. On occasions, my young child participated with me in the studio making space for chance while passing on traditional skills.
The Anonymous Citizen series aims to challenge the idea of naming, exploring ideas of “we” versus the individual. I am constantly investigating the use of color as if it were a machine. The focus is on the relationships of colors versus color in isolation, which can be seen as a metaphor for seeing myself in others when critiquing imperialism as a system, not an event. Audre Lourde says, “hate functions to distort beauty and internal power.”
My work is an ongoing question: how to build a common world when the one we inhabit I oppose. Rather than attempting to define personhood, I believe in the possibility of a world which is always changing through interpersonal transformation and freedom.
ARTIST BIO
Born to French-Canadian parents, Renée Bouchard has lived and exhibited her abstract-representational paintings throughout New England. Some of her recent exhibitions include: “Down the Rabbit Hole” at Lights Out Gallery in Norway, ME, “Still Processing” at Artspace New Haven, “Kaleidoscopic Pathos” at the Vermont State House's Governor's Gallery, “We the People” at Southern Vermont College, “Inside the Outside” at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Gallery 51, as well as shows at the Bennington Museum, and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center, the Cooper Union, Artspace New Haven, and the Kate Millett Art Colony for Women. She has received grants from the: Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and the Vermont Arts Council. She received her BFA from the Maine College of Art in 1999 and her MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2021. Renée is a volunteer advocate/counselor for the Project Against Violent Encounters. She lives and works in between North Bennington, Vermont and Greenwich, New York with her young child and dog.