Susan Seddon Boulet: A Retrospective Hardcover – January 15, 2000

Susan Seddon Boulet - A Retrospective, by Michael Babock, beautifully recounts the life of an internationally-known Bay Area artist, while a well-chosen selection of her paintings and sketches documents the many changes in her style, her use of new techniques and materials and, ultimately,her inner struggle with the concepts of life, death and resurrection as she courageously battles the cancer that ultimately claimed her life in April of 1997.Boulet, whose body of work numbers in excess of 3,000 pieces painted from 1970 through 1996, began to draw and paint at a very early age. In the 1970's, after her husband died, she began to blossom as an artist, and her work in the 1980's and 90's reflects her growing confidence in her own very personal vision and style.Boulet was a consummate master at painting multiple layers and levels of detail that only reveal themselves as one looks at a painting over and over again. From the painting "Dreams", with its rich panoply of animals, fishes, and architectural details, to Penelope, with its dark overlay of emotion and reflection, the body of work chosen by the writer to reflect Susan the "person" is a wonderful companion to the thoughtful prose of the text.Pomegranate Press, the publisher of the Retrospective, allows the author full license to capture Susan fully, as artist, visionary, personal friend, humorist and story-teller. This book, with its emphasis on portraying Boulet's magical touch at bringing the mundane and the spritual into proximity as they relect the human condition as well as the universal "inner landscape", will inspire and comfort those who knew and loved her, and those who loved - and love- her work.Those who have only seen reproductions of her work through the many calendars and notecards that have been available for years through Pomegranate Press, will be thrilled by the clear, color-accurate reproductions in this book. A "must have" for all the lovers of the magical paintings of Susan Boulet.

I have read this book from cover to cover. The photographs of Susan Seddon Boulet's work are beautiful and awe inspiring. The story of her life and her work was done really well, and had the right balance and tone between the two. Although her process in creating her work was described to some extent, I wish there was more works in progress, and real step by step descriptions. But that may not have been available. For anyone who loves her work and feels "attached" to it - I highly recommend this book. As an artist myself, I am grateful that this book has made me realize that archetypes and symbols are just as important, if not more so in Visual Art, as in Literature. More importantly, how important it is to get your work out into the world because life is short, and you never know when your last day on earth will be. Such an amazing talent, may she rest in peace.

Fans of Susan Seddon Boulet’s calenders artwork will love this coffee table book.The contemplative & meditativeness of each painting can be admired and appreciated by everyone who visits your home.

I've purchased several S.S.B. books in the past because I love her work, but I was frustrated with these books because they were exclusively picture books that revealed nothing about the artist herself or the life she was living.I was also frustrated by their lack of artistic documentation found in the other S.S.B. books. I wanted to know so much more about Boulet and what inspired the images I was seeing (not to mention the dimensions and what -medium- and technique was being used to create them) and how they progressed over time.This book -finally- provides all that, and then some. It's well written and beautifully printed with page after page of brilliantly colored and detailed pictures of Boulet's work.This book ties these fantastic pictures of her work to the storyline of her life so that you can easily follow the progression and draw associations from what was going on in Boulet's life to what was going on with her art.The reader gets to experience all the phases of Boulet's journey, watching her style and confidence unfold over the years, through her experiments with printmaking to the serendipitous ink spill that led to a crucial stylistic element emerging in her work.The book never wavers, never flinches away from the reality of the story, even when it wanders into the sad and dark territory of Boulet's eventual decline from breast cancer.The reader is allowed to explore with the artist the darker territory of the end of her life and view the transcendent imagery that manifested as a result.There are a few small "irritations" that this book does indulge in, the prevalence for discussing pieces wildly out of order for example, or the fact that Susan's son was mentioned once or twice and then utterly forgotten as a major element in her life (even though she wrote extensively about how important motherhood was to her as a theme). But overall, I have to say that these idiosyncrasies are easy to forgive in light of the richness of the overall feast.Everyone to whom I've shown this book, who is at all a fan of S.S.B's, has purchased their own copy and I can't leave it out on the table without people snatching it up and poring over it - I think that says it all.

I met Susan Boulet in the 1970s at Craft Shows in Berkeley, CA and, in the early years purchased many of her works. One, a mother and child, was purchased when my 53 year old son was 3. It has been by my beside all those years. I wish the book covered her early in more depth.

This book is full of interesting insight into this artist and the influences in her life. There is a comprehensive collection of her work. I will enjoy this book for years to come.

Beautiful book to treasure and in wonderful condition.

Magnifique

This is a magnificent book with exquisite artwork by Susan Seddon Boulet. It is much thicker and larger than I imagined it would be, so was pleasantly surprised. I dipped in to read bits of the book and found the text highly engaging and very readable. This is more than just a pretty coffee table book. It is a book to read and enjoy fully. I'm so glad I bought it.

Fabulous!

the book will last forever.... Hard cover....art work great quality. Contents accurate and beautifully illustrated.....highly recommend it.