Brigitt Blum expresses herself through the fascinating media of glass - stained or flat, in collages, sand blasted or sculpted - combined with copper or lead filigree work. In addition, her love for silk and oil painting and for clay sculpture lends further impetus to her many-faceted imagination.
The foundation for her expressionistic personality lies in the romantic and historical countryside around Hamburg, Germany, where she spent her childhood. At an early age she used any and all kinds of materials to sculpt figures and spent many happy hours sketching. These activities gave her an excellent grounding in composition and form, stimulating her imagination to search beyond the obvious.
Attending the Lilla Lerchenfeld Art Academy in Hamburg, she found formal art training ultimately restrictive of her eclectic and abstract concepts. She subsequently proceeded with studies in cosmetics and the management of the creative art and craft disciplines.
Motherhood interrupted her artistic career and she uncompromisingly devoted herself to raising her three children. During this period of her life she often gave expression to her innate need for artistic creation by making all kinds of gifts for friends and family.
Her return as a successful serious artist was marked by excellent reviews at her first exhibition at the Westerwald Art Gallery eighteen years ago. With childrearing duties behind her, Brigitte was now able to focus on her art career.
Quite by chance, a close friend introduced her to the medium of glass. She first attended basic classes in the traditional use of stained glass only after she had already held several exhibitions. Today she uses her own unique techniques, developed over many years.
It is hard to label the expressionistic character of her collection of works; in fact it is easier to define what they do not represent. They are not simply pictures, photographs or still-lifes logically bound together by lead between pieces of cut glass - a method commercially popular today. Her work is unconventional, untraditional and non-commercial. Its aesthetic merit lies largely in its individuality.
Innate symbolism is evident in all her pieces. Some are based on abstract concepts, such as a 'broken heart', while others reflect a theme from nature - an erupting volcano, a rushing waterfall. It is not surprising that her most beloved colors are the green and blue shades of plants, sea and sky.
The artist has a wonderful gift for using colors to reflect the range of emotions that nature and life can evoke - tranquility, peace and delicate tenderness, or striking, dramatic beauty or even violence. For example, her colors vary from dramatic combinations of ochre, red and purple hues and black, to the exquisite and delicate application of soft, translucient pastel colors, often combined with white. Sometimes this is combined with soft, feathery sandblasting, giving these pieces an almost ethereal or surreal feeling.
Brigitte is inspired by nature and her life experiences but there is often a contemporary element of surprise hidden somewhere - a three-dimensional focal point, a mirror cleverly applied or a special effect created by the crucial placement of a section of high-tech glass, reflecting a segment of full-spectrum light. Her effective use of spaces between sections of glass is distinctive.
It is in her development of new ways of creating art, however, that Brigitte has distinguished herself. This is especially seen in her three-dimensional creations where she uses the sophisticated technique of cutting and laminating sheets of glass layers. She has perfected a process of using clear catalyst resins to adhere several cut glass surfaces together. Of this, Mr Henry Flood Robert, Jr, the Director of the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art recently wrote: "Few artists exist at this level of achievement".
The range of this intriguing creativity can be seen in her free use of mixed media. A household item - a lamp, room divider or chair - is constructed and adorned. Fabric, oil paint, copper, precious stones, glass, metal and wood are used to transform these item into a unique works of art.
Brigitte immerses herself in her art and her imagination seems to never experience a creative block. Each piece undergoes a slow, creative process, a labour of love. In the conceptual stage, intuition directs her glass cutting, always following the natural grain or coloring of each piece. To give herself time for reflection on the dynamics of form and colour she often works on several pieces simultaneously, finding this therapeutic.
Brigitte appreciates her independence and solitude. She lives and works in a German-style chalet in the heart of tranquil countryside near Orange Park, Florida.
Each of her pieces are one of a kind. Her deep spiritual convictions can be seen in some of the concepts of her work which always projects the positive. Her hopes are that each piece will make some beneficial difference in one life.
Brigitte immigrated to Florida some years ago and is currently affiliated to the Stained Glass Association of America. In addition to her regular work she has also accepted privately commissioned works. Private collections of her works are owned by the following people in Florida: Stephen H Davis, Paul and Pat Miller, Gary and Sue Wade and Sue Webster..
