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Click Pictures  to Enlarge.

Mascaraes de Aguacate Dos   SOLD!

Mixed Media,  Carved avocado pit, beads, angel mask habitation, wood.

8″ X 24″ X 2 ” Because of the rare antique in this work: $385.00

I found these masterful carved avocado pit masks many years ago and I was recently told there was one man in Mexico City who created them in the 1980’s.

I have been trying to carve the pits and it is VERY difficult!

 

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Triangle Cabinet  2014  $2400
48″W X 42″T X 24″D
Mixed Media, NE Minneapolis 1920’s fence,
antique hinges, dynamite box, solid brass Kohler parts,
Con Man Print

 

This cabinet was designed for a difficult under screen corner.

Many one-of-a-kind details including
limited edition print Con Man

LA Bestia 2015

24″ W X 18″ H X 9 ” D
Fiberglass resin and found Mexican Folklorico objects

$350.00

During my short/long life I have been disappointed that there seems to be a scarcity of people who try to develop both the head and the heart. As I say to my students who are obsessed with earning a 100 on every assignment, Smarty with no Hearty will not serve you well in this world. La Bestia displays an exposed brain and a heart stylized tail.  My somewhat blatant metaphor is my belief that Mexico and the feathered serpent have both the head and the heart. Click here to see the evolution of La Besta. Studying with Manolo – a resin sculptor

LA Bestia was finished and  left at Quinta Camelias in Zihuatanejo where I will be all of February and March next year.

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Johnathon Liv: Boston Harbor  2014  $250

Mixed Media: Adirondak, Seagull, plastic bottles, cigarette packs, shells, rope

Barbara Bridges seeks to empower all people to embrace the creative process. She makes art from artist fabricated components in a variety of media and rescued power objects. She organizes the objects to create meaning and provoke discussions and reflection on a wide variety of social topics including Ode to Gluten (agricultural practices), Onion/Academia Nuts, (Hi Tech/HiTouch in academia) Found In Our Water (water quality), and Talking Chairs (recovery/worldview truths). Invite her to your school.

Johnathon Liv was created for the Route One: USA, part of  the Found in Our Waters project.
Our concern for the quality of our water should be an international dialogue. I seek collaborators to stage panel discussions, exhibitions with local artists, student workshops, school visits and adult events around the planet.

Wollaston Beach in Quincy, MA was a pungent experience when I stepped from the car.  I saw many
people running and playing and swimming in the water but it smelled of chemicals to my nose.  I spent
quite a bit of time trying to verify and identify any studies done on water quality. Studies exist but you need to be a scientist to read them.

 Click here to review     Read More

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LatinO/A  $1,100.00

2′ x 2′ x 4′  Mixed Media, Mexican artifacts and icons, rescued chair, retablo, fabric, beds, shells, mop, paint  2009

My academic specialty is cultural iconography -sometimes called art. I have spent the last 35 years traveling in Mexico and looking at how the Mexicans express themselves with symbols.  It has been a fascinating journey which has influenced the way I currently live my life.  LAtinO/A honors some of those spiritual and secular images which I found in my travels.

I always include a little whack -to-the-head in my art. You deconstruct the mop.  Read More
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Maine Moose  2014  $250.00

18″W X12″D X12″ T Mixed Media. Sandy Point, Maine Driftwood, found golf ball, lobster paws.

The Maine moose is a famous resident of the state. Their gentle beast reputation is a myth.  I was once treed by a moose after a brisk sprint across a field!  We frequently see moose tracks on the beach and if you are up at dawn, may see one on the hoof.

 

This work is sealed with silicone and communicates a goofy majesty -as the beast itself does when you meet one face to face.  See More

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Fleur-de-lis Stand  $140.00

12″W X 24″ W X 48″ T Mixed Media. Rescued wood from 100 year old fence in NE Minneapolis, faucet, found wood and metal objects, ornamental screws, boat epoxy.

The furniture created in the studio has a steam punk look to it.  Although sticking to very formal elements and principals of design, the  stand appears to have been created by objects found in an abandoned home.  Some were.

Engineering these rescued objects together to create a beautiful and functional art work is profoundly satisfying to me on a very visceral level.  My commitment to living a considered life and returning objects to circulation, and not to a landfill, is an important objective.

All furniture is sealed with a boat epoxy and then a matte polyurethane is my compromise to insure your object is indestructible and does not “shed”. …remains contained…what? More

 

 

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Maine Fish 1  $ 120.00

Fish 1 was created in the summer of 2014.
I am becoming increasingly concerned about Fish 1 and Fish 1,000,001.
Please investigate what is happening under YOUR waves.

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Mainer-With Love  $1,100

22″ W X 2 2″ W X 48″ T  Mixed Media  Canvas, rescued chair, shells, rope, buoy, hand hooked pillow  2011

The creation of Mainer was a five year labor of love. The oil painting of  the Heritage Schooner was inspired by the needlepoint chair backs I have enjoyed viewing at the Searsport Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine. The pillow was a wool hooked rug pillow created  by a Castine, Maine rug maker and the buoy came from my lobster people family in Stockton Springs.  The lobster claws are from three pound lobsters I buy, dry and clean using ant helpers.  When “cured”, I seal them in boat epoxy.  The large rope comes from local boat yards and found on the beaches I walk from Kittery to Eastport.

Sit on this chair and you will hear the oceans.   More Mainer

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10,000 Lakes and 1 Mighty Miss  2012  $950.00

Appeared at Art-A -Whirl 2013
Appeared at  Minnesota State Fair 2014. Won Honorable mention.

26″ W X 48″ T X 28″ D  Mixed Media, Rescued chair, drift wood, zebra mussel, taconite, Pual Bunyan plate, plaid fabric

In the artwork “10,000 Lakes and 1 Mighty Miss” I employed a methodology I call “recordari”, from the Latin “to remember, call to mind (re-restore and cor, genitive, cordis heart, understood by the ancients as the seat of judgment and memory” I would like to identify “10,000 Lakes and 1 Mighty Miss” and artworks like it, as representing our “lived experience” in visual form. I suggest we are practicing “recordari”. as “10,000 Lakes and 1 Mighty Miss” takes you on a journey which explores and records all the waterways I have visited in Minnesota. My adventuring was particularly soulful since I am a Maine native and a Franco-American. I have called Minnesota home for 17 years.  Maine claims Paul Bunyan as their native son. Imagine how curious I was to view the Paul Bunyan sculpture residing in Bemidji, where the university I have worked at for a decade.  Read More

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Conch Key   $175.00
24″ WX 24″ T  Mixed media, Lobster shell, rescued wood, stone crab claw, brass brads, wood  2013

As I approached Conch Key, it caught my attention immediately. Barely 10 acres large, it looked like a little Maine fishing village to me as I drew nearer.  I could see the piles of crab traps and lobster boats in  the distance.

I pulled in and traveled down Conch Key Road looking for a place to rent. Everyone smiled. It was December 17th, 2013. No room at any inn cottage or shack on the island.  Finally, I was directed to go and find Joanie.  Joanie agreed to rent me the “No Name” cottage for three nights if I pledged to re-make the beds myself.  I did and she did.

 

Read More

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Lobster Paw
with Sandy Point, Maine Beach Rock
in the collection of Jane and Jerry Leopold
Charlottesville, Virginia

Deb and Steve Mcenelly
Minneapolis, Minnesota

SOLD

Approx: 6″ W X 12″ T Mixed media. Sandy Point, Maine Lobster Claws, oysters, beach rope, boat epoxy, found wood, Sandy Point Beach Stones, Boat Findings.

 

See More Paws and Tales $80.00-$90.00

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Chesapeake   2014  $450.00

18″W X 72″T. Mixed Media. Driftwood, oyster shells, horseshoe crab shell, pearls.

Our nation’s capitol goes to the beach in the Solomon Islands.  I  found a giant horseshoe crab  and a oyster midden. Does it get any better?  There is something so very antediluvian about the visual aspect of the horseshoe crab.  You need to enjoy the drying process and the “ocean smell” . I do. Sealed with boat epoxy, this artwork is indestructible.

    Read More
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Anchor 2  2014  $ 250.00
24″WX24″T Mixed Media. Tanker rope, Driftwood, Sandy Point lobster claws. Sandy Point Stone.

SOLD
In the collection of Sally Gibson

Detail
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Eco Office   $80.00

16″ W X 6″ T x 8 ” Deep.  Rescued boards, antique grain belt bottle caps, metal.  All sealed with boat epoxy and finished with matte polymer.

This unique office organizer holds the history of the Midwest and saves the landfill.

 

 

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Anchor 1  2014   $345.00  SOLD

36″WX36″T  Mixed media. Tanker rope, Sandy Point Stone, Driftwood
The early morning walk when the fog is speaking with the sun, requesting a few more moments, contributed these objects.

 

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Penobscot Bay, Maine  2014  $1500.00

24″WX24″WX55″T, Mixed Media. Drift wood, authentic buoy, Sandy Point lobsters, buoy rope, sea glass, Morgan’s top sider, beads, tanker rope, metal findings, rocks, drift wood.

After 36 years of living on Sandy Point Beach in Chateau Mer, I finally created this work in August of 2014. We consumed these lobsters, I saved all these objects for some higher purpose over the course of 36 years.

This work captures the soul of Maine.  Double Click to View.  See More  $1595.00

 

 

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Treasures From The Inland Sea  2  $ 125.00
(Totis2) Mixed Media   Rescued objects from Lake Superior , wood, condom, brass, beads, glass  8” X 8” X 8”  2013  SOLD

In the collection of Gail Gannon, Melbourne, Florida.

Totis 2 exhibition history:
The International Sculpture Center Symposium. Dec 2013
Found in Our Water Project –  Art-A-Whirl May. 2014
WARM Exhibition, Minneapolis, MN 2014

I am an artist who uses fabricated components in a variety of media and rescued power objects to make art for the purpose of provoking discussions and reflection on a wide variety of social topics.  The topic of this series is re-cycle, re-purpose and “pay attention to what you discard in our water!” The different objects were collected  on the beaches of Lake Superior- including the condom. There is something viscerally satisfying about engineering the discarded objects I find in/on our waterways into a cohesive object which tells a story.  Do my Maine seacoast roots inform my passion?   You decide.  Read More
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As Special Requested by Dr. Bridges’ BSU Human Relations class. At the launch of the class, the students are promised an A if they meet two specific learner objectives.

1. Collect ALL the data ALL the time
2. Get OVER yourself!

The second objective is impossible if you do not come to understand that YOUR “truth” is only ONE valid “truth”. In order to challenge your held belief system, you must EMBRACE COGNITIVE DISSONANCE! “We want T-Shirts”- they declared!  Meditation Mug, too!  Click Here
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Steam Punk Shelving Unit  $125.00
36′ X 12″ X 48″  Mixed media, rescued wood, metal and glass

There is something so satisfying about making these objects.

This stand is very elegant with a glass top. Perfect for entryway, table lamp or books. Created from Mill City factory artifacts. Sealed with matte boat epoxy for durability. There is something so satisfying about making these objects.

More Images at the Mill City Museum

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Fort Morgan 1 2013  $150.00  SOLD

14″ W X 24″ T X 4 ” D  Mixed  Media Canvas, bolts, lobster claws, mussel shells, rescued rope, bait bag, brads
My son Morgan’s fort has withstood the test of  sea, wind, snow, ice and rain for 25 years.  It is currently serving as a beach shack to inspire reverie on a hot summer day and protection from biting insects on a misty moonlit night.

This small painting records the beach and Fort Morgan and a tree pound lobster feast.

 

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