March 2003 Tad Bridenthal
My wife thinks I should say "Born 1942. Not yet dead" (She's a writer. She likes things succinct.) But I am a bit more expansive than she,
so I will say more than that.
Perhaps the best place to begin is with what I am NOT. What I am NOT, is an illustrator, although I do create courtroom exhibits in my
professional life. I do not draw either, although I do use Autocad regularly. My recent work looks like paintings, but I don't paint. What I AM, I think, is a recovering sculptor.
Around age 10, I was taking photos with a box brownie. I liked that well enough, but had no love for my uncle's abandoned darkroom. Since
darkrooms and developing were so essential to photograpy then, I did not pursue photography at that time. Instead, at age 16, I started building what I called "light machines." These structures projected moving
images from concave mirrors. They were cool. I thought I was involved in science rather than art.
So I went to the state college (in Oklahoma) and got a bachelors degree in Sciences (chemistry, physics, math). From there, I went into the
Air Force for 4 years, where I was ultimately stationed on the coast of California. I went to Haight-Ashbury during the "summer of love" and got out of the Air Force as soon as I could. I went back to college on the
G.I. Bill and got a masters degree in sculpture.
I was still making "light machines", sculptures of light and mirrors and reflective surfaces. Kinetic Sculpture was my "movement". In 1969 I
was part of the west coast EAT group (Experiments in Art and Technology). We had a show in the Oakland Museum; then another in San Francisco for the opening of the Exploratorium. I erected my ten foot high mirrored
dodecahedron for the show and it remained in the Exploratorium for several years thereafter.
In 1974 I was "introduced" by a major San Francisco gallery to rave reviews, but didn't sell doodly squat. By this time my art had mutated
to vacuumed-formed plastics, cast paper and cast bronze, as well as the larger mirrored environments and light machines. In 1980 I was included in a couple of Art History books which was great for my self esteem.
That's putting it politely. Artists are egomaniacs, and I'm no exception. But, I'll tell you this, living on the art roller coaster all those years cut me down to size
In 1979 I went off to be a Professor of Art at the University of Illinois (Champaign/Urbana) for two years. Academia and brutal winters can
be hard on a California artist and his San Francisco fiancee. I decided I would rather be a struggling artist in San Francisco than a salaried art professor in Champaign/Urbana. I returned to San Francisco in 1981
where I have remained ever since.
Over the years I struggled with ways to make a living and continued to do my art. Finally, I realized that the problem with being a sculptor
is that you soon create a major storage problem. That realization and the evolution of the computer, which virtually eliminated the importance of darkrooms and toxic chemicals, turned me back towards photography.
And my box brownie took on new possibilities with digital cameras, scanners, and video cameras.
I use over 20 programs to equip my "digital darkroom", but I do the final refinement, page layout, and printing in Xara. Being on the Xara
forum and exchanging ideas with artists from other disciplines has stimulated and enhanced my art. It is a real honor to be among this very talented group.
Tad Bridenthal
My Website
Selected Exhibitions
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