Deborah Bridges
Sculpture
Deborah Bridges is a Northern California native residing in Grass Valley, CA. She has established a career in bronze classical figuration, a line of cement garden sculpture that is currently being carried in art galleries across the U.S. and is presently creating thought provoking ceramic figurative sculpture, teaching advanced sculpture, and running a studio that includes two apprentices.
Persona
The exploration of an idea in a piece is central to Deborah’s art. She works in a series until the idea is exhausted within the form. Her current body of work, “Persona”, began in 2018. When asked what is it that she is expressing in these serious faces with masks and puppet-like bodies? She says, "I love the incongruity of them. I love the complicated and mysterious humanity of them. My figures are grappling with the full range of human experience, the dark as well as the light. The face paint points to the masks we wear as we try to hold on to the stories of our apparent separate selfhood, our personas.”
www.bronzecoastgallery.com→ View full gallery
Garden sculpture
The garden sculpture is a fragmentation of sacred imagery of various cultures - Buddhas, angels, Greek and Roman gods - and I express these archetypal symbols in a state of transition and disintegration because they represent impermanence, the passing of time, and myth-making, all pointing to the great mystery.
www.studiobridges.com → to view full gallery
Ceramic sculpture
As a contemporary figurative sculptor, I embrace an impressionistic and expressionistic approach to my craft. My primary pursuit is to infuse my work with an emotional resonance, I seek to translate the emotional impact of inner beauty and strength through my sculptures.
Each sculpture I create is deeply personal, reflecting facets of my own being. Through my art, I aim to articulate perspectives on life and the universe, viewing artists as conduits who filter universal truths through their individual lenses.
Encaustic painting
Deborah stopped painting in 2018, choosing clay as her primary medium.
