Meet Catherine Beaudoin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Catherine Beaudoin.

Catherine is a young artist currently residing in Glendale, Arizona. She received her degree in Fine Art with multiple honors from Washington & Jefferson College near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her curiosity has led her to experiment with several mediums including oil, pastel, pencil, and ink. Though they are not her primary mediums, Beaudoin also enjoys working with acrylic, resin, fine metals, and ceramics.

In the summer of 2013, she received a Magellan Project grant from her alma mater, Washington & Jefferson, to pursue an independent study of contemporary art in Berlin, Prague, Amsterdam & Budapest. This grant fully funded a 5 week trek across 4 countries, providing her with the opportunity to explore a wide range of museums, galleries, happenings, and festivals. Her aim was to find a reoccurring theme of cultural issues that propel the contemporary art movement in order to receive intellectual, artistic, and spiritual guidance for her work.

Upon her return to the United States, she found herself equally drawn to traditional mediums such as oil painting as well as receiving influence from street art, fauvist palates, and the surrealist canon.

Please tell us about your art.
Catherine Beaudoin’s art utilizes the ambiguity and complexity of Freudian theory through the genre of surrealism to have a greater conversation around the ubiquity of violence against women. It is her ambition to expand her reach deep within her immediate community to facilitate both rumination and thoughtful discussion around the ubiquity of sexual assault, sexual abuse, and domestic abuse in contemporary American culture. Beaudoin strives to find equilibrium between uncomfortable concepts and physical beauty in order to create dialog around commonly neglected issues in order to further social progression.

In spring 2015, Catherine Beaudoin completed her first gallery showing at her Alma Mater’s Olin Gallery using oil on canvas and a central sculpture that also served as a light source. The following is Catherine Beaudoin’s artist statement for her untitled senior show:

“Within each society there are accepted virtues and faults of the collective body. Some of these issues face debate, but never change. Others are too blasphemous to even acknowledge. Every culture has their taboos. However, when it becomes taboo to even discuss, let alone address a societal fault, humankind fails. We exempt these concepts from public discussion—sometimes subconsciously— fearing the controversy of breaking a long-standing status quo of something that is inherently evil. It seems contradictory, and that is because it is.

Domestic violence, sexual assault, rape: what remains common with these beyond the inhumane acts themselves is the role society plays. As a collective culture, we wish to be ignorant, since reality will burden us. We shame those who wish to speak out. We theorize the faults the victim possesses that could force them into the wrong over their perpetrators. We choose not to listen, and even more often, not to speak. In truth, society excuses these crimes through passivity. Consequently, victims become perpetually tortured by their environment.

It is within the surrealist realm where the horrors of the mind can become real. With this taboo matter at the forefront of the surreal, the victim’s inner psyche is forced onto the canvas. The viewer can see what society has told us to neglect.

Each painting features a survivor, tormented by her own memories, thoughts, or environment. Her face is obstructed, allowing her anonymity to give her protection as well as to elevate her into a symbol of those like her. Though she yearns for freedom, she will never escape the confinement of the canvas.”

Choosing a creative or artistic path comes with many financial challenges. Any advice for those struggling to focus on their artwork due to financial concerns?
I cannot speak for all artists, but I would speculate that being your own marketing director, social media director, financial advisor, etc. is the most challenging part. Though I, too, do not enjoy these parts of marketing my own art, my struggle is slightly more complex.

The reverence of portraiture, still lives, landscapes, and even some abstract works are ubiquitous. I do not wish to minimize artists who fall under these genres by any means. However, there is certainly something more challenging about marketing a concept that is unsettling. My art invites the viewer in with often ambiguous, surrealist imagery, but with a clever eye and rumination, the surreptitious nature of my art’s content can cause some spectators to be rather dejected. Initially engaging viewers is relatively effortless compared to facilitating discussion around the taboo.

When I first started creating art around domestic abuse and sexual assault, it was 2014. #Metoo did not have the platform it has today. It was, and still is, an arduous task to have galleries and patrons support my work due to the content matter. Trepidation around the subject matter I chose is understandable; yet, I find it rather counterintuitive to dismiss the conversation as a whole, simply because of the discomfort my theme may catalyze.

I believe in my art. I believe in my talent. I believe in my message. It is the endeavor for those to invest in my work that is both extremely challenging and deeply gratifying.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My art can be experienced virtually at my website on Instagram and on Facebook.

I am also in the process of extending my audience throughout Phoenix in galleries, curated shows, coffee shops, and regional festivals.

I wish I could have some firm dates, however I am still waiting to hear back about my applications. I am transitioning into my career as a full time artist after focusing all my time and effort into my previous career as an art teacher at an elementary school in Maryvale.

Contact Info:

• Website: CatBeaudoinArt.com
• Email: catbeaudoinart@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/catbeaudoinart/
• Facebook: facebook.com/CatBeaudoinArt/

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