Retrospective Album  |  Exhibitions  |  Resume  |  Sculpture

Statement

     Nannette Clapman Blinchikoff has been creating sculpture since 1961. Her most used media were cast bronze, welded brass, and steel until she changed to lighter, more fragile materials. Because she likes the permanency of metal, she searches for ways of reinforcing the fragile, to make them less breakable.
     Nannette's recurring sculptural themes have always been the family; the human figure and face in realistic, abstract, mythical, or representational forms; nature; and the conflict between one's internal and external personalities.

Series, Media, and Subject Matter
     Candyland: clay sculptures that are abstract, colorful, and fun for the artist and viewer.
   Carnival and Healing:  reinforced-cardboard images are abstracted to symbolize Nannette's experience of being her parents' caregiver, and coping with their passing.
    Nature: fiberglass rocklike reliefs representing the landscape; some incorporate overlapping mirrors;
   The Holocaust: tortured faces made of brass, wrapped in barbed wire, and charred wood backings to memorialize her family who perished in the Holocaust during World War II.
    Female Nudes: bronze torsos; inner shell is black, representing the personality one keeps from the public; outside surface color offers a pleasing public persona.

    As Nannette cuts corrugated-cardboard boxes into thin strips, she exposes the cardboard's center and finds meaning in the cardboard's composition. To her, the center wavy line is the "line of life." It sits between two flat planes (that press in on the line). This interaction symbolizes how quickly the satisfying moments of life can be disrupted, and the struggle of time verses responsibilities.

    Ms. Blinchikoff is a sculptor, author, lecturer, art instructor, President Emeritus of the Maryland Artists Equity Foundation, and active in Maryland's visual arts community. Her sculpture can be found in public and private art collections and has been seen in numerous local, national, and international exhibitions since 1972.