Taking the pretext of appointments to the Order of Arts and Letters of Quebec, The duty takes you into the imagination of men and women whose work, exemplary in several respects, contributes to promoting culture.
To reach her old farm house, on the other side of the water, Rosie Godbout takes a covered bridge that is more than a century old. It was in this house in Saint-Armand, at the end of a country lane, that she invented her own visual grammar to express her passion for textiles and colors using the materials she makes.
Rosie Godbout assures me, smiling, that she never knew how to sew anything. “I always had an assistant and a seamstress. I have never sewn clothes. Not even for my children! » However, over the past fifty years, she has created a number of unique pieces born from her imagination, from fibers that she created.
A designer helped her during the last few years when she was in full swing. This allowed him to create variations of his creations. For the first time, she found herself selling clothes in stores. “It was only then that I was able to offer clothes in stores and earn more money. » Otherwise, she considered herself an artist in her own right. For years, she made most of her sales to people looking for unique creations, often through craft fairs, both in Montreal and Toronto. “I don’t speak English, but my creations spoke to people. »
The body, sport
At the beginning of the 1960s, on a boat between two Greek islands, she met a Quebecer. His name is Claude Godbout. Brother of filmmaker Jacques Godbout, he has just played in The cat in the bag, a film by Gilles Groulx heralding a revolutionary time. They will meet in Spain. And she takes her name, happy to get rid of those she had carried until then.
“I came from France, from a family of simple origins, as they say. » Daughter of a well-known Corsican father, she is nonetheless a child not recognized by him. His mother gave birth to a severely disabled twin brother. “I lived with the idea of having no brothers, no father. The image of the father was not strong in me…”
“My mother drew. She was very talented. She painted on fabrics… During the war, she made stuffed animals. Drop earrings too, with glitter. It was well done. I have one earring left…” Had it not been for the difficulties of life, Rosie Godbout believes that her mother could have held a good place on the benches of Fine Arts. A world that Rosie Godbout would have liked to be able to access herself, through a major school. Due to lack of resources, there was no question of it. “My mother had to find a job. I went to the orphanage, where I was a half-boarder. »
A mischievous, laughing child, she is full of energy. “I was a regional high jump champion. I played basketball. » For her it will be first and foremost the avenue of sport, of the body. She will become a physical education teacher. When she arrived in 1966 as an immigrant in Quebec, she obtained a position as a physical education teacher at the Marie de France college. His students will be at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, coached by him. All this lasted until 1979, when a second professional life had already taken root within her.
Self-taught
Sitting on a stool in front of the large table in her workshop, Rosie Godbout recalls how the 1970s lent themselves to all kinds of experimentation, according to the more or less varied codes of a “return to the earth” and everything that came with it: macramé, weaving, knitting, sewing, etc. “I liked the idea of ensuring that our lives do not depend on the industrial world. I was part of cooperatives. We went to get our products… There were potters, weavers in the area… I went to the flea markets. How much I’ve stripped of old furniture! I even had, imagine, a horse! » Through all this, which is the crucible of an era, there emerges an unsuspected love for the color and materials promised by the treatment of fibers treated in an artisanal way.
“I met someone who did weaving. And then, Claude bought me a 45-inch loom. I didn’t know anything about it… I took a short course, some workshops. I was self-taught…” Beige, brown, tradition for tradition’s sake, very little for her. “It was the color that fascinated me. I am a girl of materials, of colors. I started doing murals. And I quickly moved on to the velvet caterpillar. I made my own dyes. » She started creating fabrics, based on the clothes she had in mind. “First I made ponchos!” Those were the days! My mother, who came to live in Montreal, embroidered everything with crochet. »And everything sold. Very quickly. A new life begins following a separation. “It was a time of emancipation for women. I did so many things…I was a superwoman. » She draws, through her creations, the borders of her own colorful world.
His influences? They are varied. “I was very influenced by tradition, but not to mimic it. I wanted to be able to renew it. » She says she was fascinated by African cultures. “I took a trip to Africa which had a great impact on me, which influenced me a lot. » This can be seen in part in the arrangements, the lines, the audacity of his clothes.
Clothes, paintings
She then began to make clothes that resemble a painting, a sculpture, an enchanted vision of being combined with the color of the materials with which she envisaged life. “They were decorative items of clothing, but wearable. I am a craftswoman. I never followed fashion. I do not care. Quite simply, I need to create. I always need to create. » She ended up producing what she calls “textile paintings”.
A sample of his works is now kept at the Musée des métiers d’art du Québec, in Saint-Laurent. “It’s a museum that is not that well known. A museum that people would benefit from discovering. » In her reserves, Rosie Godbout has kept enough pieces to consider offering a retrospective. “But it’s a lot of work, organizing a retrospective…”
For his birthday, friends have just given him a pretty lithography press. She is installed in her workshop, near a window which overlooks a garden where the rain drowns everything. An artist through and through, she shows me a series of prints she has made. We see, printed in the material of the paper, colorful patterns which are reminiscent of his clothes. “Even on paper, you see, I am still in the material and the colors of the fabrics…”