Bridget grew up in Mansfield, Ohio, which like many Rust Belt cities, is marked by decades of economic and population decline. As a child, she had one passion – painting – and her complicated relationship with her home in Mansfield fueled her fascination with the connection between people and the places we inhabit. In college, Bridget studied geography, anthropology and the arts, earning a Bachelor of Philosoph in interdisciplinary studies. She also holds an MPA and has worked as an advocate for affordable housing policy and extensively in urban planning and design. When she isn't in her studio, Bridget travels and pursues her long-term love of rock climbing.
Artist’s statement
My paintings address the concept of home as a place inextricable from our sense of self, culture, history and emotions. I am interested in the ways places shape us and conversely, how lived experience and culture are reified in the objects and architecture that we inhabit. I am particularly interested in the fluidity and dichotomies of home: a space of belonging and isolation, human presence and absence, security and vulnerability, a space to escape and take refuge. Mining photographs and memories, I combine fragments of my present and former homes of Reno, San Diego, Seattle, Oxford and Mansfield; and temporary homes in Africa, Mexico, Maui, Austin and New Zealand, to unravel and reconstruct home.
Committee members
- Miya Hannan (Chair)
- Mike Sarich
- Tamara Scronce
