Scrapbook Sensibility: Artworks by Char Derouin
Reflections, acrylic, ink, pen
Northern Californian artist Char DeRouin creates her works using an intuitive process of layering and focusing on formal qualities of the art. Char produces paintings, jewelry, and also delves into bookmaking and fabric art, all with a definitive scrapbook sensibility.
Char’s lush beaded necklaces seem almost improvisational – clusters of shiny beads hang down like ripe fruit, in widely varied shapes and colours. They are very neatly put together, though, and there is a nice quality of workmanship and level of skill there.
I think Char’s style really shines in her fabric and bookmaking artworks. She has one example of papier-mache doll that she created, making a dress out of finely woven white fabric for it to wear. She is also a practiced bookbinder, creating her own scrapbooks as well as blank journals bound in an eclectic mixture of scraps of fabric. In her portfolio – www.charderouin.com – Char also includes a nice amount of process photos and images of her raw materials.
