Laurie Goldstein, an artist in North Kohala, created her first work of art at age five. With a cardboard tracing of her foot, some ribbon and blue and gold paint, she crafted a pair of Grecian sandals. “I have no idea where I’d seen something like that or how I figured out how to make them,” she said, “but the joy of making art has been with me ever since.”
After her school days, Goldstein began her formal art career as a printmaker, focusing primarily on monotype prints. She then gradually began adding thin papers and fabrics to her pieces, which have evolved from prints to print collages and finally to collage on canvas.
Her latest work features canvas with papers, fabrics and ephemera glued to the surface. Goldstein explained that she sometimes paints over the collage material to give the surface texture, creating shapes that help dictate the outcome of the piece. In other works, she has used the glued materials as the final layer, which leaves the textures and colors of the collaged pieces completely visible.
“It’s always fun to see how the final piece differs from what I may have had in my mind when starting it,” she said.
Goldstein’s works are featured in several museums and corporate and private collections including: the National Art Library of the Victoria and Albert Museum, in London, England, the Library of the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City and the Library of the National Museum of American Art, in Washington, D.C. as well as Bristol-Myers Squibb headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey and Johnson & Johnson headquarters, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.