Artist

Georgia Blizzard

born Saltville, VA 1919-died Marion, VA 2002
Media - portrait_image_113719.jpg - 89932
Originally photographed by Chuck Rosenak. Image is courtesy of the Chuck and Jan Rosenak research material, 1990-1999, in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Also known as
  • Georgia Michael
Born
Saltville, Virginia, United States
Died
Marion, Virginia, United States
Active in
  • Glade Spring, Virginia, United States
Nationalities
  • American
Biography

Georgia Blizzard started making figures and pots from clay when she was only eight years old. She watched the crawfish in the local creek build "huge chimneys out of mud," and along with her sister Mary would "fill them up with water and call them fairy castles" (Folk Art Messenger, Summer/Fall 2002). During the Depression, Blizzard left school to serve in the National Youth Administration. She worked in a munitions factory during World War II, then in a textile mill for many years (Jonathan Williams, "Rattler on the Ledge: Georgia Blizzard and Her Pottery Vessels," SAAM curatorial file). When the mill closed down in the sixties, Blizzard started making work in clay, creating pots and plaques that expressed her memories, surroundings, and religious views.