Renee Couture has a diverse, project-based practice encompassing sculpture, photography, and drawing is emotionally influenced by her mothering experience. From postpartum depression to small daily rituals as markers of accomplishments, to looking back on her own childhood, motherhood has proven to be rich territory with a range of experiences to serve as creative fodder. Her art practice has become a lifeline, helping her give form to experiences as a a mother. By centering herself, using everyday objects and repetitive mark-making, and color, she shares her reality - both her emotional landscape and daily life - as a mother. She leans into intuition, sentimentality, and self-care to make sense of, reflect upon, and share her experiences.

Couture graduated from Buena Vista University with a BA in Studio Art and Spanish. She spent the next four years rambling throughout the United States and South America, working a wide range of jobs from camp counselor to wildland firefighter to gourmet goat cheese maker to a bank employee. She earned her MFA in Visual Art from Vermont College of Fine Arts (a CalArts affiliate). She moved to Oregon in 2004 and taught in the Fine Art Department at Umpqua Community College for over a decade. Couture is currently a Project Manager with the Percent for Art in Public Places program managed by the Oregon Arts Commission. 

Couture's work has been exhibited nationally, including at Eastern Oregon University, SOIL, Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery, Whatcom Museum, and Kinhouse Gallery. She is the recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship and four Career Opportunity Grants from the Oregon Arts Commission, and four Project Grants from the Douglas County Cultural Coalition. Couture has been granted residencies at Ucross Foundation, Djerassi Residency Artist Program, Jentel Foundation, PLAYA, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Pine Meadow Ranch, and The Studios at MASS MoCA. She is a member of  Carnation Contemporary, an artist-run gallery in Portland, Oregon.

Currently, Couture lives on seven acres in rural southern Oregon with her husband, young daughter, and cat. She works out of a retrofitted 20-foot camper-turned-studio space in her garden. 
 


Photo credit: Thomas J Logan