Meet Marie Thibeault | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marie Thibeault and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marie, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I chose to pursue an artistic career because it was the most exciting way to spend a lifetime. I still feel being an artist is a vocation and calling, and not everyone is suited to this way of life. But for me, it was an easy choice to dedicate my life to such an immersive and transformative process and practice as a painter.

I first began painting at an early age and I realized beyond a doubt, that this was what I wanted to do with my life. Experiencing the landscape and painting from the landscape became a daily activity for me. I was fortunate to have had a wonderful education at some amazing art programs, that served to deepen and broaden my conviction.

While in the creative state, I am fully engaged and challenged and feel connected to a sense of deep history. I also wanted to give back something to the world and still deeply believe painting to be a powerful language. I believe creating art adds value to the world. I have focused the trajectory of my development as a painter on fusing formal innovation of the pictorial language with content and meaning driven by my beliefs as an ecofeminist.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Over four decades, my studio work has been dedicated to exploring the effects of environmental strain on the landscape. I create large-scale paintings that blend a complex abstract language with imagery of locations altered by the effects of climate-related trauma. Our once familiar landscapes, California mountains, foothills, preserved urban arroyos, and our very lives are being continually transformed by the effects of drought, fire, and flooding with alarming frequency. I am intrigued by the multiple ways in which we perceive and attempt to arrest the effects of climate change, and how this in turn, alters our imagination and experience with the landscape. My goal is to tell a visual story and embody within painting the notions of change, flux, instability, and recalibration.

I grew up immersed in the woodlands of Connecticut deeply absorbing the language of landscape, its seasonal changes, and its significance as a place. I was lucky to have supportive parents and access to art education early in life and decided to become a painter when I was in high school. At that time, an awareness of environmentalism compelled me to use reference landscape as a subject, and I have continued to develop my visual language and focus my ideas throughout a lifetime. Pursuing this career path was difficult in many ways. It was a challenge financially, socially, and emotionally, and there were many obstacles that I needed to contend with.

One soon realizes the dedication and conviction required to become an artist requires diligence, courage, and sacrifice. Few realize how much time and hard work is required to sustain and grow a deep creative vision and to form that into a distinct visual language. However, the sheer joy of creating, the satisfaction of seeing one’s ideas grow and strengthen, and success in communicating through the vehicle of painting have been deeply meaningful and highly rewarding.

In addition, the training, community, and opportunities of art school also sustained me. In my education, I was fortunate to work with many outstanding artists /teachers at both the Rhode Island School of Design and UC Berkeley. This inspired me to choose the vocation of teaching. It was a great honor to have a long career as Professor of Art at CSULB where I was able to “pass the torch” to generations of younger artists.

The immense and densely built environment of the port of Los Angeles contrasts starkly with the vastness of the Pacific Ocean horizon. The abstracted horizon runs through most of my compositions, signifying the demarcation of sky and earth while evoking the feeling of symmetrical balance. My work is an attempt to contain the uncontainable while recording a specific time and place in poetic form. I paint to bear witness, deepen empathy, and visualize our interconnectedness to the landscape, and California in particular.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would love to show friends and visitors the many walks around the San Pedro area. Peck Park has a beautiful dynamic canyon with a stream running through it. Friendship Park has a series of trails that climb to the top of a hill from which you can see a 360-degree view with Catalina Island on one side, and the huge LA Basin on the other including the high-rise buildings of DTLA. At the end of the peninsula are the Ocean trails that continue along the cliffs to Palos Verdes. Lastly, the San Pedro lighthouse at the end of Gaffey Street is next door to the famous Sunken City ruins.

There are also two famous WW2 ships stationed here, open for tours, The Iowa and the Lane Victory. The Maritime Museum has an incredible collection of model ships and a wonderful photographic record of the history of this area. A very special excursion would be to take the ferry to Catalina Island , rent a golf cart,and explore t the island for a day.

I am located in the South Bay,and it is well worth going to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach stop for lunch and a visit to The Long Beach Museum of Art, followed by dinner at Open Sesame on 2nd Street in Belmont Shores. In addition, I would take them to spend time at the amazing museums in Los Angeles including the Getty Museum, the Broad Museum, MOCA, LACMA the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to give credit to many of my friends and colleges over the years and a special shout out to my past students who have been a lasting inspiration.

Special thanks goes to William Vaughan, Pat Clark, Ann Weber, Mark Johnson, Jack Johnston, Roxanne Sexauer

Mirabel Wigon, Constance Mallinson and Suzanne Unrein, among others.

Website: https://Mariethibeault.com

Instagram: @Mariethibeaultart

Image Credits
N/A