SHARON BLADHOLM

Blue Twisting Torso

Bronze, Sand Cast Glass, Steel, Cement 
78 x 15 x 5 in

Sharon’s work has been profoundly influenced by her participation as an artist, on scientific expeditions. She has travelled to remote and biologically diverse ecosystems of the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon on expeditions with the Field Museum, Conservation International, and the Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program. She has long explored the interfaces of art, science, conservation and nature in her many series of artworks in diverse mediums including glass, bronze and ceramic, as well as works on paper.
    She has completed sculptural works in glass and bronze for the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.  2011 saw her permanent public art piece “Soil : Alive With Life”, based on soil microorganisms, installed at Openlands new 73 acre Lakeshore  Preserve. This piece is  featured in “City Creatures”, a book recently published by University of Chicago Press.
    She has created several new major ceramic installations for her new solo  exhibit “Soils, Seeds and Sprouts :Tropical and Temperate” at Notebaert thru Dec 3rd,  which contrasts local nature with that of the Amazonian. One installation Earth Stars :Above and Below celebrates a species of fungus in al its diversity. Another, “Seed Rain : Seed Bank” explores seed form and color and was inspired by restoration biologist Karen Holl’s lecture.
    Sharon often  teaches workshops, present lectures and is involved with residencies at schools. In 2016 she was the first Artist in Residence in the Amazon with Project Amazonas, spending several weeks at their forest reserve near Iquitos, Peru and in 2017 completed a residency at Monroe County College in Michigan.
“The Earth Star Torso” and “Blue Twisting Torso” are about strong women who are confident and connected to themselves and nature. The bronze tree branches help support the torsos echoing this connection and sustenance from the natural world. “These pieces were created  shortly after I spent a month with  the Yanomami, indigenous peoples who live in the Brazilian rain forest. I encountered many strong women there, who fish, hike through the forest and have their babies alone  in the jungle.
    I particularly bonded with a young woman just entering her womanhood. On a fishing expedition along a creek, she went off by herself, started a fire and began to cook herself a fish on a stick  and said something enthusiastically, which I was curious to know.
    When I asked our  translator, she related, “I eat meat like the jaguar!”, meaning that instead of cassava and fish she was eating meat as indeed a jaguar would.”