Artist Bio about Midge Baudouin: Love and art. Art and love. For me, they have always been intertwined. “I love to make art. I love to teach art. I love to give art. I love to see art. I love to support art.” Midge’s life as a maker started back during her childhood in New York City (the Bronx) when, with few resources, she and her friends improvised with materials from empty lots and construction sites to make things from their imagination. When the public school offered free arts and crafts, Midge learned embroidery and woodworking. She was also entrepreneurial, selling handmade pot holders and lanyards to tenants in her apartment complex. Midge followed that spirit of creative ingenuity into adulthood, always learning and practicing — she was a macramé genius — eventually making a living teaching and selling art supplies for various companies. “After being a sales executive for a major woodcraft company for many years, I took off my make-and-take-it apron and put my creativity into selling products worldwide. It was a different form of creativity, but the core was always the creative process of art and craft and making things. “In retirement, I have been able to throw myself, morning, noon, and night, into my artistic process. Every single day. It is a lifeblood thing now. Maybe it always has been, but certainly now I’m tapped in.” Mixed media and collage have been my métier for many years, keeping that spirit of improvisation from my youth. “I love the idea of working with complete abandon — with no rules, no planning, and no thinking — just doing it organically. Whatever comes. The surprises. My favorite artists are Picasso, Matisse, Basquiat and 3 year olds. I am inspired by Gee’s Bend. And more recently, Rosie Lee Tompkins. Learning about Rothko and participating in a global network called Art2Life/Spark. Self- expression and imagination are key, using what’s available to make something. Turning something old into something new is always fun. When I learned surface design silk screening, it became another game changer in fabric collaging. I love nature. Mother Nature paints us a new picture in 3D living color. All we need to do is look out and see it,” Art has taken on new and deeper meaning for Midge. Knowing she is not alone on her artistic journey sustains Midge as she keeps living a creative life. “I believes art and artists connect us all”. “Art and artists live on and inspire and leave a story and history. From the beginning of time, expressing visually has resonated [with people], and it remains a piece of humanity. It brings us closer together, the same with music. We are on equal footing. No words are needed to communicate to the soul, mind, and senses. There is a rhythm and a pattern.” “When creating my art ‘in the zone’ — many times it feels like a silent symphony with my eyes. There is the beginning, the middle, and the crescendo,” she said. “Life. It’s a crazy thing. We are left as survivors of our times, our decisions, our truth. The loss of our loved ones, and the legacy they leave. Our art. How we spend our time. Let’s leave the world a little kinder and gentler and a little more beautiful than the day we showed up.” It’s an honor for me to show my work at Derek Gores Gallery. This is a magical place.