Bridget Fischer
Artist’s Statement
The subject and style of my work has encompassed a range from pure abstraction to photo-realism, to figurative abstraction. I work in a variety of media including cast bronze, wood construction, oil on canvas, drawing, and monotype prints. I often will explore an idea or theme, which may begin in one medium such as oil paint, then transition into another medium such as sculpture or monotype.
The monotype offers me a way to work though ideas in a quick way, yet the product is not just a sketch, it is a finished work. Though one knows their materials and tools, there is always the factor of the unknown that enters into the process. I don’t know until I pull the paper away from the plate if what I put down has transferred. It is that element of the unknown, the variable that appeals to me.
As a painter and a sculptor, I love blurring the lines of distinction between the two disciplines. I love the physicality of sculpture and the headiness of painting and printmaking.
Painting and Monotype offer the same awareness- the slowing down of time- to bring one to the present moment. The headiness of the present moment is best described in Chinese calligraphy, where “Mind” is written as “heart”, or “heart mind”. In our western view, this is a paradox. Yet, this paradox is what I intend in my art, heart and mind connection