Leslie Nielsen died in November at the age of eighty-four.

(MUSIC)

A giant spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois during an exhibit in New York's Rockefeller Center in the summer of 2001

FAITH LAPIDUS: Louise Bourgeois was an influential artist best known for her large sculptures of metal spiders. Much of her art was fearless, sexual and strange.

Her paintings and sculptures were often shaped by painful experiences. Her anger toward her father for betraying her mother with another woman was one big influence in her work.

She once said that her artwork was a way to battle her tensions and fears and attempt to be a better person.

Louise Bourgeois was born in nineteen eleven in Paris, France. Her parents had a business repairing ancient tapestries. She used her drawing skills to help with repairs. Louise studied math in college, but later changed her area of study to art.

In nineteen thirty-eight she met art historian Robert Goldwater in Paris. They married and moved to New York City. She continued to work as an artist while raising their three sons.

Bourgeois took part in many gallery and museum shows in New York. But she did not become internationally famous until she was in her sixties. In nineteen eighty-two the Museum of Modern Art organized a show of her work. Major museums around the world later bought her artworks.

She once said she was glad she was discovered later in life. This gave her time to work without interruption at her own speed and in her own way. Louise Bourgeois kept working on her art until her last days.