Art from a Broad Palette

When Virginia Bradley arrived at UD this fall as professor of art and chairperson of the Department of Art, she decided that the best way to introduce herself to students and colleagues was by sharing her work.

To accomplish that, she hung several of her mixed-media works in a gallery near the art department office in Recitation Hall, where they remained through most of September. The display allowed visitors to see examples of such projects as a wall-size painting that Bradley created in a trans-Atlantic collaboration with another artist and smaller, fabric-framed paintings she did during a sabbatical at an artists' colony in India.

She says she hopes the variety of her work reflects what she brings to the University.

"This job is a very good fit for me because I bridge areas within the department," Bradley says. "I'm a large-scale, mixed-media artist, and I use a lot of printmaking, photo screening and silk screening in my work, as well as using the computer as a tool. I think it's important for students to have a broad palette and for every faculty member to teach them something different."

Bradley says she also values collaboration, as seen in the painting Land of Milk and Honey, which she did with English artist Paul Clifford. The 8-by-9-foot work on plywood, which uses lead, copper, bronze and peacock feathers in addition to paint, is based on a 15th-century Flemish engraving that is an allegory of life and resurrection.

Bradley and Clifford, whose first meeting on a plane in 1986 launched their long-distance creative partnership, began Land of Milk and Honey together, by projecting the original image of cherubs and foliage onto 12 plywood panels and painting into the shadows. They then each took six of the panels and worked on them separately, carving into the wood and insetting metal as well as painting. Months later, they reassembled the sections and completed the work.

"There's a long tradition of collaboration in 20th-century art, going back to Dada and surrealism, but you can't do it with just anyone," Bradley says. "You have to have the right partner. The result is that a third voice emerges, different from either of the partners alone."

While her collaborations with Clifford have drawn acclaim, Bradley emphasizes that most of her work is done as an individual. She says her 2001-02 sabbatical in Spain and India inspired many of her recent paintings.

"I'm very interested in pattern and decoration, and spending time in India was the most amazing thing I've ever done," she says.

Bradley comes to UD from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, where she was an art professor for 10 years and served as chairperson of the art department. Raised in Pennsylvania, she says she is happy to be back on the East Coast and to work with graduate students, which she did not do in Minnesota.

"The University of Delaware has a really strong art department, and I'm here to help make it even stronger," she says. She plans to teach courses in painting, drawing and mixed media.

Bradley has a master of fine arts degree from the University of South Florida. She taught at the University of Wisconsin at Marshfield and at Minneapolis College of Art and Design before joining St. Cloud State University.

She has received several public art commissions and numerous professional grants for painting and drawing from organizations including the McKnight Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Minnesota State Arts Board.