Betty Goodwin Dies

A long time friend of the family, Betty Goodwin, died yesterday just 3 weeks after her husband Martin. She was a very well known Canadian artist and for many years a close friend of my mother. In the 1960's and 1970's they essentially lived in their place in the Laurentians (where she had a studio in the basement) and I remember visiting them many times there.

Particularly bizarre was the fact I was literally talking to my son Nicholas about her and her work when the news of her death came to us. I probably hadn't mentioned her name for a year prior to that.

Her work was a rather unusual bend of conventional objects and semi-abstract material. Back when I knew them better much of it centered on etchings, and she had a lot of traditional but complex-looking apparatus in her studio. It's rather a shock to have somebody die that was a longstanding fixture of your life, even when it is somebody you have not seen recently. It's a sobering moment to reflect on one's own mortality and the transient nature of existence. In this case though, she also leaves a non-transient, substantive and impressive imprint on the Canadian art scene.