At Home, 2008
 

Mary Bridgman was born in Waterville, Maine and grew up in close proximity to Colby College, where her father was an American History Professor. Early on Mary¹s interests were decidedly visual with influences from academia on her father¹s side and in the artistic and cultural  from her mother and  grandmother who lived in a house on Beacon Hill.

Bridgman earned a degree from Connecticut College before moving to New York City where she attended the Parsons School of Design. Mary continued her studies at the Art Students League, The New York Academy of Art and the School of Visual Arts refining her skills and techniques before delving into a  personal exploration on the canvas.

Over the years Bridgman has traveled extensively to the continents of Europe, Africa, South and Central America, Australia, Indonesia, and the Islands of the South Pacific where her work with the camera became an inquiry into complex culture differences as well as a notebook  written by a western female traveling alone.

After a trip to Kenya and Tanzania, and soon after to the Prado, a personal symbolic vocabulary began to emerge, which can be observed in the Gold Leaf Series (archive 2) and the Black and White Series(archive3). Choosing the myth as transformative subject matter  to deal with the concept of grief on an internal level. This particular work should not be interpreted as religious, but as a means to explore a  mythical dimension. With approaches representing painting from the early renaissance to the modern concept of  an abstract field of space, the work allows us to concentrate on the painting  as a mirror to ourselves.

Following the death of her father, Bridgman embarked on a new dialogue with the canvas. Drawing inspiration from French Romanticism and incorporating the physicality of gesture painting to create a dynamic surface( archive 1).

Employing painting, drawing and photography, Bridgman’s work draws upon a broad range of cultural influences from Renaissance paintings to Modern approaches to traditional artistic subject matter.

Bridgman is currently  concerned with  mundane and temporal subject matter within the architecture of everyday life. Her equestrian work represents her long term relationship with the horse both as artistic inspiration as well as her favored form of transportation.

Her work has been included in exhibitions in New York City, The Hudson Valley, Kentucky, and Virginia. Bridgman is on the Faculty at the Parsons School of Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology, freelances in the Fashion Industry  and resides in Manhattan.