Georgia Blizzard (May 7, 1919 - June 2, 2002) was an American ceramic artist from Virginia. She was self-taught and her work is in the permanent collections of several American art museums.
Georgia Blizzard | |
---|---|
Born | May 7, 1919 Saltville, Virginia |
Died | June 2, 2002 Marion, Virginia |
Nationality | American |
Blizzard was born in Saltville in 1919. [1] She claimed Apache and Irish ancestry. [2] When she was little, she and her family moved to Plum Creek. [2] Her mother taught Blizzard and her sister how to create art using a pit-fire method. [3] During the Great Depression, she left school in order to be part of the National Youth Administration. [4] She worked in a munitions factory in Bristol during World War II and after that, worked at a textile mill in Chilhowie until 1958. [5] Blizzard had contracted black lung and lost one of her lungs. [3] Her husband was crippled in an accident in a coal mine and eventually their marriage failed. [3] Her husband died in 1954. [2] Blizzard developed paranoid schizophrenia after these events and her art helped her deal with visions she saw and the feelings she needed to work through. [3]
She began making art for sale in the late 1950s and sold her pottery in her daughter, Mary's, store. [6] In the early 1980s, her neighbor, Michael Martin, contacted a friend to take some of Blizzard's work to a gallery in Buckhead run by Judith Alexander where Jonathan Williams discovered her work. [7]
Blizzard died in Glade Springs on June 2, 2002. [3]
Blizzard's pottery is hand-built. [6] She used to find the material to create her ceramic art in the creek behind her house in the Appalachian hills. [8] At first, she used a coal kiln built by her neighbor, Michael Martin, but later in life used an electric kiln. [2]
She is a self-taught artist. [9] Her art "expressed her memories, surroundings, and religious views." [4] The work is dark in terms of theme, as Jonathan Williams describes it, "they make you think twice about human despair." [5]
Her work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, [1] the American Folk Art Museum, [10] the Milwaukee Art Museum, [11] the Asheville Art Museum, the High Museum and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum. [3]
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Georgia Blizzard (May 7, 1919 - June 2, 2002) was an American ceramic artist from Virginia. She was self-taught and her work is in the permanent collections of several American art museums.
Georgia Blizzard | |
---|---|
Born | May 7, 1919 Saltville, Virginia |
Died | June 2, 2002 Marion, Virginia |
Nationality | American |
Blizzard was born in Saltville in 1919. [1] She claimed Apache and Irish ancestry. [2] When she was little, she and her family moved to Plum Creek. [2] Her mother taught Blizzard and her sister how to create art using a pit-fire method. [3] During the Great Depression, she left school in order to be part of the National Youth Administration. [4] She worked in a munitions factory in Bristol during World War II and after that, worked at a textile mill in Chilhowie until 1958. [5] Blizzard had contracted black lung and lost one of her lungs. [3] Her husband was crippled in an accident in a coal mine and eventually their marriage failed. [3] Her husband died in 1954. [2] Blizzard developed paranoid schizophrenia after these events and her art helped her deal with visions she saw and the feelings she needed to work through. [3]
She began making art for sale in the late 1950s and sold her pottery in her daughter, Mary's, store. [6] In the early 1980s, her neighbor, Michael Martin, contacted a friend to take some of Blizzard's work to a gallery in Buckhead run by Judith Alexander where Jonathan Williams discovered her work. [7]
Blizzard died in Glade Springs on June 2, 2002. [3]
Blizzard's pottery is hand-built. [6] She used to find the material to create her ceramic art in the creek behind her house in the Appalachian hills. [8] At first, she used a coal kiln built by her neighbor, Michael Martin, but later in life used an electric kiln. [2]
She is a self-taught artist. [9] Her art "expressed her memories, surroundings, and religious views." [4] The work is dark in terms of theme, as Jonathan Williams describes it, "they make you think twice about human despair." [5]
Her work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, [1] the American Folk Art Museum, [10] the Milwaukee Art Museum, [11] the Asheville Art Museum, the High Museum and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum. [3]
{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)