Title: Light Seekers (2020)
Artist: Melissa Bridgman
Medium: Concrete Stamp
Produced by the Germantown Public Art Commission
Artist’s Statement
GPAC 2020
When approached with designing a motif for the walkway at GPAC’s new outdoor space, I immediately began doodling in my sketchbook with a focus on the native plants, animals, and insects of the Wolf River floodplain. Highlighting the quiet beauty and ecological importance of native species has been an underlying current of my work in ceramics and in my family’s life.
Because I have been a beekeeper off an on for about ten years, I was drawn to interconnecting hexagons as a background grid for my design. It was a fairly simple way to lay out a pattern, and it provided a built-in framework for the concrete specialists who would be completing the design. After playing with and rejecting multiple leaf and avian images because of their complexity, I considered the space, its use, and the wildlife that would be attracted to the space while in use. As they often do, my thoughts turned to moths.
Moths are quietly beautiful. Unlike the more popular butterflies, they aren’t as flamboyantly colored or universally beloved. Instead, moths blend in with their surroundings until a discerning eye seeks them out. Their subtle exterior wings give way to astounding geometry and color once their inner wings open. Moths are primarily creatures of darkness. They are unnoticed during the day but are irresistibly drawn to the light, whether that light be white flowers in a garden or the streetlights on a dark night. I refer to them in my work as “light seekers”, always there, always looking. It is a reminder for me to look for the good during troubled times. As the grove is an outdoor performance space, lighting warm nights with vibrant performances, moths will literally be drawn to to the lights of the stage as the artists draw people to view their performances.
The two moths in this pattern are based on TN natives. The Virgin Tiger Moth (grammia virgo), a species which can be found everywhere from my front porch in midtown Memphis to the evening lights of shops in Germantown. The smaller moth, the Grape Leaf-folder (desmia funeralis) is a small but strikingly graphic insect that is also native to our area but is less common. It was my hope to create a subtle but graphic design that will lead patrons into the performance space, blending the seam between indoors and out, and to spread the message of light seekers into the world.
About the Artist
Melissa Bridgman: Bridgman Pottery
719 Dickinson St. Memphis TN 38107.
901 493 0901.
bridgmanpottery@gmail.com
www.bridgmanpottery.com
Education
Salem College, 1997 BA History, American Studies
University of Mississippi 1999 MA Southern Studies
Studied with ceramicist Diana Fayt, 2010, 2012, 2013
Teaching Experience
2018, 2019 Floral ceramics class at Dixon Gallery and Gardens
2017-2019 quarterly hand building ceramics classes for Me & Mrs Jones
2015-2019, 2006-2009 Memphis Brooks Museum of Art: Arts Basic Curriculum
Instructor
2001-2005 Children’s Pottery Instructor, City of Germantown TN
2001-2004 Children’s Sculpture Instructor, Memphis College of Art Community
Education Summer programs
2001-2003 Teaching Artist, Greater Memphis Arts Council Center for Arts Education
Exhibitions and Juried Events
May 2019 Eclectic Eye, Still Life (with Debi Vincent)
November 2017- Eclectic Eye, Clouds (with Martha Kelly)
2017, 2018, 2019 Memphis Maker Market (curated by Muddy’s Bake Shop)
2017, 2019, 2020 Fancy Little Flea, Germantown TN
April 2016 -Eclectic Eye, Sea and Stone paintings and ceramics Memphis TN
October 2015, May 8-10 2014 Urban Barn Market, Memphis- juried art, vintage, and antiques market
2011 St. George’s Independent School Bee Work bee-centered mishima on porcelain
Related Work
2020 public art, Onward, Choices Memphis
2019, 2020 Stamped concrete project, Light Seekers, GPAC
2018, 2019 Designed and produced custom work for Dixon Gallery and Garden
2013 Designed and produced restaurant ware for Tart, a french pâtisserie -Memphis, TN
2012-2014 founded and co-led women’s artists mentoring group in Memphis, TN
Publications ( www.bridgmanpottery.com/press/ )
September 2017, RSVP Magazine
February 2015 Memphis Magazine
January 2015 Memphis Magazine
Spring 2011 Edible Memphis
February 2011 Memphis Commercial Appeal
January 2011 Southern Living
Melissa Bridgman is an alumna of Salem College in Winston Salem, NC, where received her degree in History and American studies. During this period, she spent three semesters interning and exploring the collections of the Reynolda House Museum of Art and the Museum of Southern Decorative Arts, enriching her love of art, pattern, printmaking, fine textiles and ceramics, and the folk traditions of North Carolina. She holds a Master's in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi, where she studied documentary fieldwork, art history, self taught and folk art. Melissa has been a teaching artist with the Memphis Brooks Museum and the Greater Memphis Arts Council. A full-time potter, she also teaches ceramics workshops for adults in Memphis. She spends her time in her garden and studio with her family in her midtown home.
