Kathy Bradford

Description

What goes around, comes around, or so they say. We all do the best we can. We are all tourists on the planet any way. I'm a product of the '60s, born in '45, and totally emersed in the straightforward "tell it like it is" syndrome. I come from a place where a handshake is all you need, and a promise is a promise. Free advice? Sure. It would never cross my mind to charge for such a thing. Colorado mountain people are a group not unlike many folks throughout the land, especially mountain folks. We always bring our children to parties. Wouldn't think of it any other way. But it's not all "laid'back," "mellow out" city here. There is work -- a lot of work. If I don't have anything to do, just wait five minutes, and I'll think of something. Somehow I've inherited a strong work ethic from the past. My elders were mostly working farmers; the women always making something with their hands; the men always breaking their backs to scratch out a living. Some things never change. One thing was apparent early on, however. The creative spirit my family somehow tried to deny but couldn't really escape, landed in my lap. Fom the very beginings of my memory, I was building, painting, drawing, coloring, planting, and creating something. My dear mother had me in extra-curricular art classes before I was in kindergarten. She drove me several miles almost every day to high school an hour early so that I could work in the art room on something - who can remember what? Then there was the day my dad tried to bring home several 4' x 8' sheets of Celotex on top of his new '54 Chevy- But the wind caught it and sent it exploding all over the highway. I never saw a person turn so red with anger. He picked up all the pieces and gave them to me to paint on. Somehow I came up with a bunch of oil paints and painted for two summers out on the patio with that stuff. He loved everything I did as I was into painting green rolling hills with patches of trees and sunsets. Where does all this stuff come from? Beats me. I was always a loner. Never a social butterfly in those days, I continued to spend all of my time creating something on my own. I was (and still am) a hopeless tomboy. Boys were a lot less complicated than girls and more fun. I became a pretty good short stop, even playing in an adult league later. But where is all this dialogue going? Well, I was asked to describe myself and how I got into the glass scene. That's an even longer story. I ended up with a degree in Fine Arts and a teaching certificate which took forever because I had to transfer in my junior year (never do that!) The result however, in retrospect, was that I received a lot of education from two vastly different universities whose philosophies were entirely different. My experiences ran the gamut, delving into all types of media and all imagery. Drawing was always a strong suit; ceramics, printrmaking, you name it - I was probably there, and I ate up every minute of it. Now I Iook back at projects from those days, and it's funny. I used to build a lot of sculptures with glass just for the pleasure of it. I really think an artist doesn't always have a handle on what he's doing.

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