Patricia Bradshaw: "A Journey On Paper"
Series of Collages and Drawings
Reception
Friday, June 11 (5-8 PM)
AES Gallery is excited to present collages and drawings by Patricia Bradshaw.
Born in the Bronx, New York, Patricia's mother strongly encouraged her to be creative at an early age. As children do, Patricia tried dance, theatre, and music but art is what she truly desired to pursue.
While in her mid-twenties and closing in on her B.A. degree, her mother prematurely died. Losing her biggest supporter Patricia was devastated and lost her creative focus. She finally realized that to end the grieving process she needed to return to the arts and fill that void left by loss. By the summer of 1997, jazz music became her passion and legend Billie Holiday consumed her. She spent years reading everything she could regarding the woman affectionately called, "Lady Day." The fruits of these studies jettisoned Patricia into an odyssey of self-discovery. Identyfying with the singers' struggle, Patricia began drawing Holiday from photos in biographies and on album covers and she felt her visionary world awaken.
Moving on she began a series of surrealistic charcoal illustrations of females with intertwined vines for hair in angelic poses. She titled these works the "RootsCollection". Her journey continued with, "Tea Trees", a group of smaller sized ink drawings of trees on used tea bags she saved as an exercise on how to reuse paper she could find in her own kitchen.
Her hobby of collecting eye-catching headlines, old family photo images, magazines, greeting cards, postcards, handwritten letters and newspapers generated an interest in visually documenting the war in Iraq which she started doing in 2004. "War Series" includes over 150 collages and in 2010 continues to grow. The subject grew out of a life long interest in photographic journalism and current affairs. The work contains unique found paper items, letters typed on an old typewriter, and office supplies such as paperclips and staples. The medium is basic but the work evokes the harsh realities of war, death, money, politics, greed, and places left in total destruction.
Patricia obtained her Associates Degree with honors in Applied Science at Elizabeth Seton College/Iona College in New Rochelle, NY and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Studio Art, and a Psychology minor from Herbert H. Lehman College in the Bronx, NY. She completed an internship at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion in Stamford, CT, and numerous continuing adult courses at New York University and Lehman Collage. In 2008 she was commissioned to produce several large scale private lobby paintings in Bronxville, NY. This is her third solo exhibition to date.
∗Artist will be at the gallery Wednesdays or by appointment.
This exhibition is presented by Modern Art Foundry and RT Restorations:
Modernartfoundry.com / Rtrestorations.com
AES Gallery
44-02 23rd Street
Long Island City, NY 11101
Phone: 718-249-9359
Email: GalleryAES@aol.com
Hours: Tuesday thru Saturday, 11- 5 pm or by appointment
