Rebecca Goodale has been creating innovative and sublimely made artist’s books for many years and frequently does collaborative work with other artists as well as public art installations. In addition to being artistically active, she was the founding program coordinator for the Kate Cheney Chappell ‘83 Center for Book Arts at the University of Southern Maine, where she inspired artists at all levels. Goodale’s books can be found in many institutional collections, including the Bowdoin College Library; the Maine Women Writers Collection at UNE; Herron Art Library; Library of Congress; Portland Museum of Art, ME; State Art Museum of Hawai’i; the Boston Athenaeum; the Children’s Museum in Seoul, Korea; and the Fogg Museum Fine Art Library at Harvard University. 

In 2015 she was named a Maine Master Crafts Artist by the Maine Crafts Association. Other awards she has received include a New Forms Regional Initiative Grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts and a Mellon Grant for the Humanities at Bates College. In 1995 she was a Resident Scholar for the Island Institute in Sitka, Alaska. 

Rebecca continues to teach design and book arts for various institutions and exhibits her work both locally and internationally.

Goodale’s current body of work consists of a series of artist’s books about plants and animals currently listed as threatened or endangered by the State of Maine. Her intention is not to become a scientific illustrator; instead, Goodale wants to inspire sensitivity for these rare flora and fauna by using her background in book arts and textile design to interpret color, pattern, rhythm, and transition.

rebeccagoodale.com