brittan blasdel

Brittan Blasdel uses natural and repurposed man-made materials to make something new. The South Carolina mixed media artist calls her work “elemental excavation.”

Artist: Born in Kansas City, MO, Blasdel grew up there and in Rochester, NY. She earned a BFA in photography from the University of Michigan in 1992. Since graduating, she has exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions across the country.

After living in Brooklyn, NY, for 16 years, Blasdel moved to Charleston, SC, where she has lived for seven years. She works out of a studio in her home.

In the beginning: After college, Blasdel pursued photography, both personally and professionally. She worked as a commercial photo assistant and then a digital retoucher before leaving the profession.

Fascinated by the world around her, and nature in particular, Blasdel started to document what she saw in photographs, focusing on macro aspects, or extreme closeups of nature.

Blasdel now uses her photography as an inspirational starting point for her mixed media pieces.

“The patterns, shapes and textures I photograph or observe get highlighted in the work I do now,” said Blasdel.

Art & materials: Mixed media works using repurposed everyday objects, including metallic tacks, found ledger paper, wood remnants (either whole or burnt) and sand. Works, in various sizes, include:

2-D tack pieces on ledger paper ($150 to $2,100). “I am drawn to old ledgers because they convey a human history,” said Blasdel.
Burnt wood combinations ($400 to $1,000) depending on the size and number of pieces.
Paint/gold leaf on found wood objects ($400 to $900).

“I like adding an element of “change” to my pieces with reflective materials, such as gold leaf or the metallic reflectiveness of the tacks,” said Blasdel. “The pieces change as you move around them as a result.”

Favorite or must-have tools: Sizing glue, a small hammer and a Solo stove.

Inspirations:

Aboriginal Dreaming art.
Portuguese tile designs.
Mosaic work in general.
Architect: Frank Gehry.
Assemblage artists: El Anatsui, Jack Whitten, Alexander Calder and Martin Puryear.
Photographers: Mary Ellen Mark, Sally Mann and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Painters: Jean-Paul Riopelle and Henri Matisse’ paper cut-outs.

Special or unusual commissions:

A commission where the only criteria was “water.”

“I took photographs of a burbling stream and extrapolated an abstract design from those photos that I conveyed using silver and gold metallic tacks on a painted blue field,” she said.