Playstation (front view), steel, wood and earth, 50’x 47’ x 23’ 6”, 2009/2010
(photo credit Tory Roff)
Bridget Beck
Name: Bridget Beck
City/State: St. Paul/ MN
Email: bridgeit22@hotmail.com
Website: http://bridgetbecksculpture.com
Email: bridgeit22@hotmail.com
Website: http://bridgetbecksculpture.com
MNartist.org profile: http://mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=217960
Bio~
Bridget Beck grew up in South Dakota where she soaked in the
plains and the sky until graduating from Augustana College in 2000 with a BA in
English and Art. She then spent some time at Franconia Sculpture Park in
MN as an intern in 2001. After finishing the internship, she went East
and worked in the same capacity for Socrates Sculpture Park, Mark DiSuvero’s
Spacetime Studio, and the Connecticut Sculpture Park. After her
time out East, Bridget returned to the Midwest where she
continued to make sculpture in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
She went back to Franconia Sculpture Park again as an intern in 2004.
Bridget then supplemented her eclectic resume with an AS degree in
geomatics (civil engineering) which she completed in 2006. After
receiving her AS degree she has been gainfully employed by Ramsey County,
MN where she designs roads in 3D, surveys the lay of the land, inspects road
projects, and tests soils when needed. Bridget is most
passionate about the time spent creating new sculpture as Franconia Sculpture
Park's Resident Artist, mentoring emerging artists, and writing the Franconia
Blog.
Watch (front view) 15’6” x 22’ x 28’, 2011
Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?
My work centers on the action of play and my sculptures are
rough approximations of playlands I have imagined. They come from a
long-standing desire to construct rafts, forts and hideaways. I believe
that there are too few interesting, magical, and thought provoking
places. The sculptures I create attempt, on an individual level, try to
tip this balance. I try to expose the complex intersections between
place, belonging, object, and action. I see my sculptures as places to
escape responsibility and seriousness. I hope to trigger fond memories
and prompt fantastic thoughts while building community. I want drudgery
as prisoner and the swing to reign.
I am currently working on three large sculpture-event
projects.
The first is GLOWaBOUT (http://2012.northernspark.org/project/beck-samaniego) for Northern Spark (http://2012.northernspark.org/) the night of June 9th. I have always loved creating pseudo battles
and taking part in outdoor games. Artist
Carissa Samaniego and I co-created this event and are bringing it back to Minneapolis
for the second year at MCAD outdoor plaza.
We can’t wait to get people building fortresses, playing capture the
glowing orb, using the pigment throw zone area, partaking in a wild ceremonial
procession and so much more. This year
we are taking GLOWaBOUT to a whole
new level.
My Mother’s Cottage, steel and wood, 24’ x 20’ x 26’, 2004
The second is an event connected with the debut of my newest
large scale interactive sculpture Poetry
Studio.
I am building this sculpture up at Franconia
Sculpture Park where
I am their resident artist. The poetry event- and sculpture celebration will be
held at Franconia Sculpture Park on June 22nd from 2 to 4 p.m. and June
23rd from 1 to 5 p.m. More info can be
found at http://www.franconia.org/poetryevent.html.
My
interactive studio sculpture comes with a bench swing, elevated writing studio,
umbrella roof system, winding staircase, and escape hatch. The visiting
public—the young and the young-at-heart—can participate by creating poetry
during workshops held both days. Selected participants will read their poems
alongside established poets, including Heid
E. Erdrich, MN; Wang Ping,
MN; Dobby Gibson, MN; and Ashley David, GA & VT. This idea for this sculpture began after
completing a residency at the Vermont Studio Center. I was inspired for the first time to try to
create this sculpture, Poetry Studio, in the likeness of a poem. I tried to use space poetically – telling a
lot with a little and never the whole story and using space/place to grab a
person in a way that is specific but incredibly vast at the same time.
The
third sculpture is my Locomotive Sculpture project. This sculpture will travel to 8 separate care
or independent senior living communities.
I have never built a mobile sculpture that was built with the help of so
many organizations. I can’t wait to see
how this works out.
This
sculpture brings a bit of adventure to the usual routine (May- August), weekly Locomotive
Sculpture updates during the sculpture construction and the opportunity for
hundreds of individuals to contribute to a large scale traveling sculpture that
will visit and connect to the larger community.
As community members grow older they deal with aging and loss on a daily
basis and sometimes find their mobility is limited. I have established a
creative partnership with: Ecumen Parmly LifePointes- Chisago City, Golden
Living Center- St. Louis Park, Good Samaritan Center Heritage Place-Roseville,
Good Samaritan Center- Inver Grove Heights, Good Samaritan Center University
Specialties- Minneapolis, Good Samaritan Center- Stillwater, Ramsey County Care
Center- St. Paul and Texas Terrace- St. Louis Park.
I will
lead two art making workshops with residents and their caregivers at each
location where they will be able to contribute significantly to the Locomotive
Sculpture. They are able to access a Locomotive Sculpture Blog and Facebook Page
with weekly Locomotive Sculpture updates. There are bulletin
boards at each facility that tracks the Locomotive Sculpture weekly as
its construction progresses. After the workshops and final construction of the
locomotive structure is finished, there will be 8 community events where the
Locomotive Sculpture will be driven to each care or independent senior
community and invite residents and their caregivers to interact with and gather
on the sculpture they helped create.
GLOWaBOUT: a night long city game, steel paint, wood and community, 2011
How did you decide to become an
artist?
I took a sculpture class in college and
finally had a place to channel my imagination and energy. But, it wasn’t until my sculpture internship
at Franconia Sculpture Park, after building my first real interactive
sculpture, that I absolutely knew there was no turning back…
What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
The best advice I have gotten is to always put the time in no
matter if you feel amazingly inspired or as dry as a sack. This advice is at the core of all my large
scale sculptures. It takes all the time
I can get to make something that pushes past 20’ in any direction. I work when I am super excited about building
a certain section and I work on days that are cold and full of monotonous
grinding of steel edges… days I wish I was just sleeping in instead.
Playstation (in action), steel, wood and earth, 50’x 47’ x 23’ 6”, 2009/2010
Many artists struggle to find ways
to sell their art. How do you sell your work? How do you market
yourself?
I’ve never sold a large scale sculpture. I work a full time job to finance my living and
sculpture material expenses. I don’t
think anyone would make these sculptures if I didn’t. I don’t think my wild and large interactive
sculptures would be here if I lived off of sculpture sales. And, I think these imaginative sculptures
need to be a tangible part of my life nonetheless- so I guess I still wait for
the day that someone is generous enough to finance the time and materials that
go into the sculptures I want to build.
Until then I’ll do the best I can by financing myself and applying for
grants and fellowships. I couldn’t use
the limited sculpture building time I have to make benches or works of art that
might easily sell or I’d sacrifice the sculptures that I really need to make.
Who are some of the Minnesota
artists you enjoy?
I know so many great Minnesota artists !
Bridget
Riversmith (http://www.redrabbitriversmith.com/),
Mike Hoyt (http://www.michael-hoyt.com/),
Asia Ward (http://asiaward.com/),
Andrew MacGuffie (http://mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=174735),
Mary Johnson (http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=3191),
Amy Tocosani (http://rosaluxgallery.com/my_portfolio/amy-toscani/html),
Aaron Dysart(http://aarondysart.com/),
Carissa
Samaniego (http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=146614),
Carolyn Swiszcz (carolynswiszcz.com).
If I
were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go?
What would we see?
First stop would be Franconia Sculpture Park (http://www.franconia.org/), then,,,, Western
Sculpture Park (http://www.publicartstpaul.org/western.html),
Casket Arts Building (http://casketarts.com/),
and Walker Sculpture Garden (http://garden.walkerart.org/index.wac)
Image of artist at work
In addition to
www.Local-Artist-Interviews.com, where do you go online for good art resources,
whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world
locally and otherwise?
A few sites I regularly visit are:
Beautiful Decay- http://beautifuldecay.com/,
Caine’s Arcade- http://www.facebook.com/#!/cainesarcade,
Irrigate Arts- http://www.irrigatearts.org,
Hyperallergic- http://hyperallergic.com/,
Arrowhead Artists Alliance- http://aaawdhistory.blogspot.com/,
Huffingtonpost Arts-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arts/
and Poetry Foundation- http://www.poetryfoundation.org/
Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future?
Yes, Poetry Studio Sculpture Event
June 22nd and 23rd, and
Locomotive Sculpture locations and
dates are:
August 21st 10 to
noon at Good Samaritan Center Heritage Place-Roseville 2 to 4p at Golden Living
Center- St. Louis Park
August 22nd 1 to 3p at Ecumen Parmly LifePointes-
Chisago City
August 23rd 10 to noon at Ramsey County Care Center- St.
Paul 2:30 to 4:30p at Texas Terrace- St. Louis Park
August 24th 10 to
noon at Good Samaritan Center University Specialties- Minneapolis 3-5p at Good
Samaritan Center- Stillwater
August 25th 1 to 3p at Good Samaritan
Center- Inver Grove Heights
Bridget Beck
