Artist dies; recalled for colorful creations

For full obituary, see attached article.

Abramowitz was part fine artist, part textile designer and part seamstress.

She eschewed canvas for fabric, creating beautiful hand-painted patterns and then turning the cloth into dazzling kimonos and other wearable art.

Her smaller pieces can be worn as shawls and jackets. Larger pieces — the size of a full-length, traditional T-shaped kimono — are designed to be displayed, so their intricate patterns and folds can be admired and appreciated.

Last year she added a new line, Roselle in the Home. Her decorative throws and quilts were equally lusciously colored, each a one-of-a-kind design.

“I like working with different fabrics,” Abramowitz said in a 2011 interview with the Stowe Reporter. “I love what I do. I like having a studio here at my home. It’s a perfect life for me.”

Debra Margo is married to Abramowitz’s nephew and regarded her as a dear friend as well as an adoptive aunt.

“She was a woman who was fierce, stubborn, strong-minded, generous, loving, questioning,” Margo said. “She was a wonderful mixture of contradictions. You could not (talk nonsense to) her. She had no time for that. That was thing I admired about her.”

Abramowitz became resilient growing up during the Holocaust, according to Margo.

Her father died in a concentration camp. Her mother died of an illness at about the same time. Abramowitz and her two sisters were supposed to be sent to a concentration camp, but were spared through a paperwork glitch.

When she and her sisters arrived in Canada in 1948, they were adopted by different families but managed to stay in touch with one another.

“It was not something she talked about very often,” Margo said. “There was a real sense of a joy in living that came from her early experience and that determination to survive.”

Abramowitz blossomed artistically after she moved to Stowe full time, according to Margo.

“She loved living in Stowe,” Margo said. “She believed she had found and made herself a home there. She loved the different communities there — the JCOGs community, the artistic community, and her many friends. Her death is a great loss for many people.”

As a young woman in Montreal, Abramowitz studied pattern-making and draping at Cotnoir and Caponi, worked with her husband designing men’s shirts and ties, and then opened her own studio in Old Montreal making original hand-painted quilts.

Abramowitz became a full-time Stowe resident in 2002 after the death of her husband. They had been longtime second-home owners.

She created her designs in a studio attached to her home, where the ever-changing view of woods, pond and mountains offered endless inspiration for gorgeous color palettes and painted designs, ranging from flowers to abstract patterns.

She chose the kimono as the foundation for her art because she liked the sensuality of the T shape, viewing it as an ideal canvas on which to paint.

Abramowitz created her freehand fabric designs in her studio. An artist in Montreal would hand-paint or dye them onto bolts of luxurious fabric imported from China. Each 6-yard bolt of fabric was an original; Abramowitz never re-created the same design twice.

She produced a custom kimono pattern from each bolt, based on the weight and color of the fabric and the placement and scale of the hand-painted design. Sometimes she would add beadwork or quilting to highlight a design.

The entire process could take up to six months. In a typical year, she might create 10 large pieces and 40 smaller ones.

Abramowitz and her longtime assistant, Ruth Brown, a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, always saved every unused scrap of fabric to be mixed and matched and used to create new pieces.

Mickey Myers was executive director of the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe when Abramowitz was on the board of directors.

“The first time I saw one of her garments, I fell in love,” Myers said. “I have 13 of her garments, including one of the long kimonos the Helen Day gave me as a going-away gift. It’s a piece of art I’ll have forever.”

Abramowitz’s clothing was unique, in that it reflected a mix of influences, from African to French to Japanese — and it could be worn by anyone, Myers said.

“She was open to inspiration from everywhere, not just from trends or haute couture,” Myers said. “I think that’s why there is so much appeal to her work. Everyone looks wonderful in a Roselle.”

Abramowitz was known for her generous spirit.

For instance, she was moved to action when an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan in 2011.

She sold a full-length kimono to raise money for the tsunami victims, donating every penny of the $2,700 price.

Abramowitz was an active member of the Jewish Community of Greater Stowe.

Contributions in Abramowitz’s memory may be made to the Roselle Abramowitz Memorial Fund, in care of JCOGS, 1189 Cape Cod Road, P.O. Box 253, Stowe, VT 05672; phone 802-253-1800.