Isabelle Klauder is a local contemporary artist based in Hendersonville, North Carolina. She is a painter who has abandoned the traditional white canvas in favor of patterned fabrics and textiles. Her large-scale oil paintings on patterned fabrics offer visual representations of the grief experience that was incurred after the loss of her mother. The work that emerged is a collection of large-scale self-portraits where the female figure is intertwined with repeating botanical motifs and floral patterns, creating a rich visual tapestry that celebrates the human form and speaks to the complex ways in which we cope with loss by experiencing our inner and outer worlds simultaneously. Klauder’s work offers a unique perspective and asks thought-provoking questions about how we perceive time, how we cope with grief, and what it means to pass in and out of life. Her artwork affirms that grief is a universal human experience that spans across time. Not only can art-making offer a lifetime to soothe emotional suffering and the sorrow of being left behind, but the paintings she has created have the ability to act as a symbolic tether to her departed mother. She’s created a visual language that speaks to our shared humanity and serves as a reminder that there is always beauty to be found in even the most challenging moments of life.
