Georgia Blizzard (May 7, 1919 - June 2, 2002) was an American
ceramic artist from
Virginia. She was self-taught and her work is in the permanent collections of several American art museums.
Biography
Blizzard was born in
Saltville in 1919.
She claimed
Apache
The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...
and
Irish ancestry. When she was little, she and her family moved to
Plum Creek. Her mother taught Blizzard and her sister how to create art using a
pit-fire method.
During the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, she left school in order to be part of the
National Youth Administration.
She worked in a munitions factory in
Bristol during
World War II and after that, worked at a
textile mill in
Chilhowie
Chilhowie is a town in Smyth County, Virginia, United States, on the Middle Fork of the Holston River. The population was 1,781 at the 2010 census. The name Chilhowie is said to come from a Cherokee word meaning "valley of many deer". It is also n ...
until 1958. Blizzard had contracted
black lung and lost one of her lungs.
Her husband was crippled in an accident in a
coal mine and eventually their marriage failed.
Her husband died in 1954. Blizzard developed
paranoid schizophrenia after these events and her art helped her deal with visions she saw and the feelings she needed to work through.
She began making art for sale in the late 1950s and sold her pottery in her daughter, Mary's, store.
In the early 1980s, her neighbor, Michael Martin, contacted a friend to take some of Blizzard's work to a gallery in
Buckhead run by Judith Alexander where
Jonathan Williams discovered her work.
Blizzard died in
Glade Springs on June 2, 2002.
Work
Blizzard's pottery is hand-built.
She used to find the material to create her ceramic art in the creek behind her house in the
Appalachian hills. At first, she used a coal
kiln built by her neighbor, Michael Martin, but later in life used an electric kiln.
She is a self-taught artist. Her art "expressed her memories, surroundings, and religious views."
The work is dark in terms of theme, as
Jonathan Williams describes it, "they make you think twice about human despair."
Her work is in the permanent collections of the
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...
,
the
American Folk Art Museum, the
Milwaukee Art Museum,
the
Asheville Art Museum The Asheville Art Museum is a community-based nonprofit visual art organization in Western North Carolina (WNC) and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The Museum is located on the center square of downtown Asheville, 2 South Pack Squ ...
, the
High Museum and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum.
References
Citations
Sources
*
External links
The Life and Times of Georgia Blizzard(2011 video)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blizzard, Georgia
1919 births
2002 deaths
Ceramists from Virginia
American potters
American women potters
People from Saltville, Virginia
20th-century American ceramists
20th-century American women artists