Interview: Artist Sharon Bladholm on Activism, Ecology and Documenting a Changing World

I recently had the pleasure to interview Sharon Bladholm for a piece that will appear in the upcoming Spring issue of CS Interiors; as it turns out, we both love to talk and our digressions were just as interesting as the topic at hand.  Sharon’s interest in the ecology, the environment and accompanying scientists on their expeditions to catalog species in the rain forest struck me as particularly relevant in a time of ever quickening climate change, and her story offers another lesson about how art can be used to educate and ultimately, to change the world.

You’ve been in your studio for twenty years.  How was Garfield Park changed during that time?  I’d imagine the neighborhood has changed pretty dramatically?

The city is trying to promote this area to artists and landscapers.  There are lots of empty lots by the El – not be the best place to build a condo, but it’s a great place to plant a garden.  Christy Webber (an accomplished landscape architect) recently bought fourteen acres behind the Green Technology Center.  It really all started with the Garfield Park Conservatory.

How do you feel about the transformation?  I’d imagine you’re relieved that it’s not gentrifying in the typical way.

Being a huge plant and nature lover, I’m thrilled.  I think if a Starbucks opens around the corner we’ll all be a little worried.

Can you tell me about your background?  Your family was very into the arts correct?

My father was an art teacher, so I grew up doing art.  All my brothers and sisters grew up doing art so we were the weird family where the pressure was actually on us to be artists.

Growing up, every summer we’d get in the VW van and travel around camping.  My parents were very into nature.  When I was eight my parents bought 40 acres of land in Wisconsin, and there were no buildings – nothing.  My dad built a one room log cabin, but we never really lived in the log cabin.  The second summer he built a studio but that’s just where he painted.  The kids just camped for nine summers.   We’d dig a toilet pit every year, there was no running water . . . no electricity the first two summers.  But that got me to totally love nature.

How did you feel when you returned home after spending the summer that way?  Was it a relief?

I remember being depressed.  We have to go home to Highland Park and go to school and flush toilets!

How did you start Opal Glass Studio?  Have you always made stained glass?

When I was 17, I met these two twin brothers, the Oswalds.   They did stained glass to support their music habit.  Jack Oswald and I were in a relationship and moved to San Francisco supporting ourselves doing stained glass.  When I was 20 I sold a stained glass lamp for $8000.  Later I came back to Chicago to open Opal Glass Studio in Wrigleyville.

So you’ve always made your living as an artist?

I did waitress and cater a bit, but only part time, but other than that I’ve always supported myself with my artwork.

In addition to making stained glass, you’re also an illustrator and a sculptor; how did you learn those techniques and what interested you in learning them?

I would get intensely interested in something and focus on it and just learn how to do it.  I also learned print making, how to do lithographs and etchings, but I didn’t get a degree.   I don’t have a degree from anywhere, but I’ve gone almost everywhere.  I use schools as a resource.

How did you start sketching?

When I had that small studio doing stained glass, I was always doing other things too.  I drew intensively and eventually joined Tom Robinson’s drawing group and went over there to draw once a week.  I started going off on these sojourns to Mexico and Central America and I’d carry around a sketchbook drawing everything I saw, so I kind of taught myself to draw.  That experience was good training for when I started interfacing with the scientists.

Would you call yourself a scientific illustrator?

Before I went on the Field Museum expedition (to the Peruvian Amazon) I went on an exhibition (expedition to the Brazilian Amazon) with people from the Chicago rain forest action group.  One woman at the Field Museum said I should call myself an exhibition (expedition) artist.  I trained myself to hike through the jungle and to find something and draw it, but I’m not a scientific illustrator per se.

How was it being out in the rain forest?

It was incredible experience to have 17 scientists collecting specimens and I’m drawing them as fast as I can.  On the (earlier) trips to Mexico I fell in love with the rain forests and found out they were being destroyed just when we need them.

How many species are out there waiting to be discovered?  Can you just head out with a group and find animals nobody has ever documented before?

On (the Rio Pastaza, Peruvian ) expedition we found 22 new species of fish.  They found another 22 others on the Rio Pastaza in  Ecuador.  That’s in just six or eight weeks and that’s normal  It was actually one expedition but broken in to two parts, and I was on the peruvian part.

How do you get along with the scientists on the trip?

Scientists are my heroes, especially these biologists going out in the field risking their life to catalog species that are literally disappearing.  I want to do more pieces commemorating my favorite scientists.

Cool idea!  But a bit surprising to hear from you.   Aren’t scientists quite a different breed than artists?

There are a lot of similarities between how scientists work and how artists work.  Biologists have incredible observation skills.  And they have a passion for it; most don’t make a ton of money.

Why are you so interested in rain forests?  What about them inspires you?

They’re the lungs of the world . . . plant diversity . . . disease cures . . . I did artwork for the Rain Forest Action Group newsletter, but I had this longing to go to a place where people are still living in harmony with the natural environment.  (The book) At Play in the Fields of the Lord ( by Peter Matthiessen) inspired me.

One of the biggest problems we face is global warming, and I really want my artwork to do the work of furthering that fight rather than just have it be used to decorate somebody’s house . . . although it can do both.

How did you get manage to get an invite to attend a scientific expedition?

If you want to go someplace, just draw about 25 pictures of it and you’ll get to go.  I was still studying at the Art Institute, and we were studying the Yanomami..  One year later I found myself in an Yanomami village making drawings . . . so my dream came true.

Then I met Barry Chernoff and told him I’d be interested in going on one of his Amazon exhibitions.  He didn’t have enough money to hire an illustrator, but I told him I wasn’t looking to get paid, but that he could use my art to help with fund raising.  I said, “I hope you realize I’m not some wimpy person who freaks out about a mosquito bite.”  It helped when he found out I’d already spent time with the Yanomami.

And what’s the process?  Do you just hop on a plane and go?

We had to get a whole year just getting permission to go into this village.  I didn’t know I’d get to go for sure until about a month before we left.

I’m proud that I made that happen.  It’s not easy to call people you don’t know, but I made that call.  You really do create your own reality.   If I just sat around saying I want to do that  . . .

Will you return to the rain forest?

I’m always trying to figure out a way to get back to the Amazon.

Good luck. Thanks Sharon. I learned so much and really enjoyed talking with you.