Death of an artist

The obituary of Bonnie Woolsey Benschneider, a local artist, was published in this morning's paper. It recounted her education, her work, her family. But it did nothing to capture her exhuberance or charm.

I met Woolsey Benschneider (she called herself just Bonnie Woolsey then) about two years ago, when she was 83. She showed me her paintings based on the biblical book of Revelations -- abstract and luminous, filled with angular creatures of light. She called it "the art of the dream."

I also had a chance to see her eclectic home/studio, so crammed with artwork and the flotsam of her life that her living room looked a little like a gallery -- and a little like a family's attic. She scurried around the place like an anxious bird, telling me stories about her paintings, her sculptures, her family.

Here's the story I wrote from that visit. I wonder whether her art now matches the dream.