Bridgette Bramlage

Bridgette Bramlage is a self-taught collage artist and interior stylist based in Chicago. Her creative journey began with acceptance at Detroit’s Center for Creative Studies for metalsmithing and continues to be a self-guided exploration of new mediums. She has participated in solo and group shows in Chicago galleries, the Saatchi Art | Other Art Fair, and the Helsinki Urban Arts Gallery. A member of the Chicago Collage Community, Bridgette is happiest slicing up old Life magazines in her home studio. Her work has been commissioned and featured in the Chicago literary magazine “Boredom, Horror and Glory” and is available for purchase in Chicago at the boutique Hester.

Artist Statement

My collage practice began in 2020 as a private narrative series during Covid. Piece by piece, these works represent my conversations with the world and provide a means to articulate the peculiarities of my subconscious. Driven by mood, I can use color or monochromatic palettes to create themes juxtaposed with society’s terrors and absurdities. These compositions of vintage magazines, papers, and book pages explore and expose the surreal aspects of feminism, trauma, and power. Making art is a way of mitigating anxiety and exerting control in a volatile society that feels increasingly anti-woman as I age. I am able to set the terms, rather than having them impressed upon me by society.

www.bridgettebramlage.com


What is your first memory creating?

I really liked to draw. I used to draw tiny flowers, fairies, and trees in pencil on the wall behind my bedroom door. As a five-year-old, it was something I knew I technically shouldn't be doing, but it was erasable. I was a quiet rule-breaker.


What is your relationship to your medium? What draws you to it?

I fell in love with the spirit of the Dada art movement, especially the collage works of Hannah Höch; the transformation of the mundane is deeply alluring. As a collector of vintage ephemera, I felt the pull of giving these materials new potential and purpose. Collage making is a dive into our subconscious; it’s an emotional response to surrendered materials. The magic is in the serendipity of the result on paper. The draw of the process is that it starts with scant information and turns into something driven by the information on the paper. It's an easy slip into contemplation; the eye has to search out the nuances of the paper by considering the shape, color, and imagery.


What is the main thing you hope your audience takes away from your art?

To find their story in the work. I believe that art is a communal and subjective experience. If I can create something that draws a person in by establishing a thread of connectivity, that causes resonance, which leads to dialogue about our histories and how they intermingle.


Tell us about a challenge you overcame last year.

Letting go of imposter syndrome and having the confidence to call myself an artist. Being self-taught, it weighed on me that I didn't go to art school or work in the art field in a professional capacity. I let it undermine my ability to communicate and speak about my work. Who gets to decide who is an artist and who is not? Only I could make that decision to validate my worth by committing to creating work confidently, curiously, and proudly.


What is your main goal or resolution this year in terms of your art practice?

Can I have five main goals? It’s tempting to say to make more art, but it’s important for me to develop more creative relationships and connectivity. My immediate craving is to collaborate, make some cool things, make mistakes, and learn from others.

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