PHYLLIS CARLIN

CARLIN--Phyllis. Was born in Newark, NJ in 1929 to Gertrude and Walter Goldberg. She died peacefully on April 6th at home in Maplewood, NJ from the effects of lung cancer. She was a loving mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, daughter, relative, companion and friend. But above all she was an artist, a creative spirit who made paintings, sculpture and ceramics with great skill that delighted everyone who saw them. She grew up during the Depression at a time when there were few opportunities for women to be artists, much less find work in the field. But she became one of the first women admitted into the union of United Scenic Artists and painted sets for a variety of important productions in New York ranging from the Metropolitan Opera to the Ed Sullivan show. She continued to do so after her first son, John was born; but stopped and moved back to New Jersey after her second son, Tom, arrived. Phyllis spent most of the next two decades taking care of her family while remaining an active participant in the New York art world, visiting the Museum of Modern Art almost every week for over half a century as well as other museums, theater and gallery shows. At the same time she began an active career at home, painting a series of accomplished work that blended modernism with domestic portraits of familiar faces. A man could be standing in the center of a blank room with a gob of painted smeared across his body and a dog howling discretely in the background. Or a blur of beautiful stars could blend into a patterned landscape that made it seem as if Paul Klee was living in suburban New Jersey. The whimsical quality of the paintings, assemblages and objects came from Phyllis' unique spirit and joy in finding wonderful things in the world and in the people around her, combined with a focus on quality and craft. She worked at her art and her relationships in a way that never seemed labored and always ended up as good as possible. As she grew older she never grew old, always finding new things and new people to share her delight in the world. She spent much of the past twenty years with her companion Bob Collier and nurturing her three grandchildren, Magritte, Mallory and Dexter; helping them grow and find the same joy she was able to take and give from everything around her. She lives on in our hearts and imagination.