Ita Bullard
Weaver of Dreams on Canvas
I
After Degas
Hunger
By Lucas Baker
and she enjoys the physical contact with the canvass. “When I touch the canvas, I feel so close to the process that I become filled with what I call genetic memories which guide me in a physical as well as mental and emotional dialogue with the work. It takes me into another dimension that offers much more than the studies of constructive forms that I have made over the years.” “When you are young you begin by being very free in form and intention, but then you learn all the contemporary fashions and you study the techniques of the masters. Then, after more time, you wish to return to that more childish phase, that freer moment in time, so that the canvas can evolve and bring out things that you did not even think about, things that come from another place. That’s what I like, mostly. “My work, many times, has no preconceived notions. I let the canvas speak to me rather than just start from a visual composition. I would rather let the canvas and colors tell me what the composition should be than to intellectually establish the forms. At times, it is important for me to attempt to paint with the old master’s techniques and subjects. I do this for my own development as an artist and to explore imaging with oil as closely as possible to the way they might have.” “I consider my art a gift to myself. I am humbled by the process and am forever seeking to advance my ability to evoke emotion through the painting. Most of the time I look at my worktable and pick colors without a plan. Other times I will decide to try to channel a painter and his/her style. If I were to try to copy van Gogh’s style intellectually, I would fail. But after intense study of him and his techniques I can begin to simply “see” the images as they take form in front of me. I do not copy the masters but interpret them in my own way by sharing their vision, style and techniques. My ambition is to approach them and benefit from their experience, not to emulate them.”
ta Bullard creates original art with an eclectic mix of techniques and absolutely no pretension. Her muses have come from deep within her spirit to find fulfillment through many years of dedication to authenticity and honesty of expression. There is no other painter like her. Although she still seeks to evolve both techniques and scope of her new projects, she is at rest and happy with all her work to date. This work forms a continuum that reflects an inner life. To view her work is to look at her soul “through a glass brightly.” Her abstracts can bring you into an alternative universe. Her lack of pretension creates few boundaries that could keep the viewer out. The colors speak for themselves and the shapes sometimes change before the eye, like clouds in a bright sky. The paintings are alive. Oil is layered, the color applied in such a way that changes of light in the room dramatically change the appearance of the paintings. They breath, they sing, they are companions with stories and lives of their own summoned up from another world and presented though the prism of the artist and her skills. Her studies of the masters are interpretative experiences of their techniques and subjects. They are important because they provide a further perspective into those works as she expands some aspects and leaves others less articulated. Ita explores canvas and paint on a level that is often pre-conscious in its basic nature and therefore all of her work reflects a certain degree of primitiveness. This primitive approach is, however, informed by years of practice. The result is an artist who can make the unreal real, who can put a dream on your wall or project a muse directly into your heart. Ita paints with knife, brush and hands. Her work is both traditional and childish. She paints with her hands because it “evokes the child within” 40 • Fine Art Magazine
Dreams
“When I want to feel turbulence, passion and exuberance, I will paint in total abstract form. Abstract is electrifying, violent, unsettling — an escape into a random world of dissonant visual rhythms and themes. It is music into colors, a cacophony of reflected light that leaves an emotional imprint on the viewer. It is there to evoke a primitive catharsis that is all to rarely available in a pure form.” “For instance, the Star of David is an example of how a preconscious approach to abstract painting resulted in a concrete notion. Only after being viewed by others did I begin to identify the energy and forms with my conscious memories and thoughts.” Born in Paris, France at the beginning of World War Two, Ita spent her earliest years in fear of noises like explosions and loud knocks on doors. The Nazis took her father when she was two and she did not recognize the man when he returned years later. Her mother, brother and she hid in a farmhouse near Vichy by
brazen French citizens with whom she is still close today while the German Army sought to eliminate them as a family and a race. In 1945 the family returned to Paris to find that they had no more home and that everything that they had prior to the war was gone. They found a flat on the outskirts of the city and her father went back to work as a tailor. In 1948, at the age of eight, she attended a Protestant boarding school placed by her parents to hide her identity as a Jew and protect her in case the anti-Semitism of the War resurfaced with more harassment. Even though the war was over, there was always an underlying feeling of being judged as someone unsavory, a “persona non-gratis” in France. Ita later attended public school but still always felt like an outsider. One middle school art teacher contacted Ita’s parents with news that she believed that the child possessed tremendous talent for the arts and that she ought to pursue these. Her father looked disparagingly on these “talents” and forbid her to continue her art studies. Fine Art Magazine • 41
Ballerina and Chair
Childbirth
After high school, she pursued a career of sewing as her father dictated for three years until she met an American Airman and married him. He returned to the U.S. and she never saw him again but she was able get a divorce after receiving a green card, which she used to come to America. She came to find her father’s brothers and sisters that he had not seen or heard from since before the War. She found the relatives and subsequently brought her parents here, as well. In 1967, Ita met a very ambitious and charismatic business entrepreneur. His name was Horace Bullard. Ita and Horace lived together for thirty-five years. While she assisted him in a plethora of successful business ventures, working as secretary, treasurer, family manager and companion, Ita found time and the space to begin creating the collection of oil, water color, acrylic, gouache, and sculpture that now number over 100 pieces. Ms. Bullard lived and painted for many years in Riverdale, NY before moving to East Hampton, Long Island in February of 2006. Presently, she is seriously considering moving to the shore of Lake Champlain just across the lake from Burlington, Vermont and in close proximity to Montreal, Quebec and Lake Placid, NY where she can expand her studio and gallery spaces. 42 • Fine Art Magazine
Boston Dancer
“Her idiomatic sense of color lends explanation to her mental reference. She has a great sense of color and a well-constructed purpose for putting paint on canvas.” — Jamie Ellin Forbes
Red Horse
Star of David Fine Art Magazine • 43