| Judith
Bledsoe (1928 - )
Judith Bledsoe embodies the romantic artist's life most people
experience only in dreams. The high-spirited daughter of a
classical violinist, she grew up in California brimming with
ideas. From her earliest days, Bledsoe was a seeker, yearning
to live intensely in a suitable environment for a burgeoning
creative soul. "I had no choice but to become an artist.
I always drew and painted, and also wrote as a child. I made
mythological things, stories, some atavistic things and strange
faces."
Like many gifted and restless spirits, Bledsoe knew her artistic
ambitions were outgrowing the town, and even the country of
her youth. She needed history, splendor, pageantry. The alluring
pull of the Continent proved too strong to resist. The artist
fled to Europe at 16, craving experience and artistic freedom.
While lesser spirits may have been daunted by such a bold
leap, Bledsoe was enthralled with the beauty of the art all
around her. In Paris, she was able to absorb, adapt, and ultimately
create her own joyous vision of life.
She also began her lifelong love affair with printmaking. For
several years she worked with the Imprimerie Nationale de France,
the official print shop of France, and was later given the honor
of creating "The Spirit of the Print Shop," the official
lithograph of this organization. Bledsoe herself describes printmaking
as " a fatal malady & quite incurable. (It is) a fascination
and a joy, which I find more and more exciting & I love the
hand press and the big flat machine and the atmosphere of the
print shop."
In an age when all is calculation and deliberate effect, Judith
Bledsoe is, and has always been, inextricably linked with her
art. She did not have to create a form of art; she has always
lived it. Her world, the people in the Parisian streets, the
cats frolicking outside her house, the stories she created as
a child--all of these are interpreted and effortlessly transformed
into paintings, prints, sculptures, and collages.
Indeed, she has often felt overwhelmed after walking around the
city on a particularly beautiful day, when the richness and multiplicity
of subjects for painting seemed unending. For Judith Bledsoe,
everything around her has a story to tell. This depth of feeling
and sensitivity permeates all of Bledsoe's work, whether the
subject is the joys of human friendship or the persistent bonds
of memory. Suffused with the glow of everyday happiness, works
by the artist transcend our traditional notions of daily living--they
offer hope, spontaneity and limitless potential. Judith Bledsoe's
works are to be lived with, reflected upon, and cherished.
To Artist Showroom
|
