ARTIST STATEMENT
I stretch, pad, paint, and secure a variety of domestic materials into dimensional works that are sometimes free standing and sometimes displayed on the wall. These soft pieces echo the pliable shapes of the human body, while also referencing objects of household care and coziness like cushions and bedding. Pillows, like the maternal body, are associated with softness, comfort, and in overabundance, suffocation and smothering. In these works, fabric stands in as metaphor for motherhood and family life. Many of these pieces suggest aspects of my own body and experience, working through the pandemic, gaining weight, playing an emotional support role in my family. Since my palette is determined by towels, scraps from children’s clothes, bed sheets, and old bras, my color choices shift from boisterous to faded. The household fabrics I work with contain different levels of elasticity and strength, and are meant to convey different sensations from comfort to tension. Human bodies and relationships are vulnerable and soft; sometimes they sag in certain spots and snap tight in others.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
“Bridgette Bogle was born in Roswell, New Mexico in 1977; thirty years after the space aliens crashed there and caused such a ruckus. Bogle received her MFA from the Ohio State University in painting and drawing in 2003. She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally, including, Painting at Night, Collar Works, Tory, New York in 2022 and Sentimental and not, Rueff Gallery, Purdue University, West Layfayette, Indiana in 2019. In 2009, her Candy Store Grid at Dayton Visual Art Center consisted of a room full of 135 small paintings inspired by consumer culture. A selection from Candy Store Grid is installed at the Dayton Children’s Medical Center. Bogle was recently awarded an Artist Opportunity Grant from the Montgomery County Arts and Cultural District. She currently serves as a Professor in the Art Department of Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio.”
© Bridgette Bogle