Georgia Blizzard
(1919–2002)
BornSaltville, Virginia, United States
ActiveGlade Spring, Virginia, United States
DiedMarion, Virginia, United States
BiographyWith clay from the creek behind her home near Glade Spring, Virginia, in the Appalachian Mountains, Georgia Blizzard created sculptural ceramic vessels that channeled her personal experiences and spiritual beliefs. Some were mask-like faces or expressive, full-figured portraits that she hand-shaped based on herself or on the memory of people she knew, early on using a bottle or jar surrounded by clay as a form. Many have narratives, carved or applied in bas relief, of heavenly salvation or damnation, sometimes with biblical themes such as the sacrifice of Isaac. Their distinctive brown-and-black coloring was formed by first using an electric kiln to harden the pieces and then a coal kiln to refire them, creating an unpredictable aspect to her process that highlighted her material’s natural character.Born in 1919 in Saltville, Virginia, Blizzard started experimenting with clay when she was eight years old and living in Plum Creek, making small toys with her sister that they baked in the sun. She claimed Irish and Apache heritage, and one of the first techniques she worked with was a dugout firepit in the tradition of Indigenous pottery practices. She was widowed at a young age, and her work to support her family included jobs in a munitions factory and a textile mill. After an illness that led to the loss of a lung, she shifted back to her childhood interest in ceramics. She and her daughter eventually opened a small shop that drew the attention of supporters, including the Atlanta folk art dealer Judith Alexander.
Blizzard died in 2002, her work held by major museums across the United States. She once stated of her art, “I can get rid of taunting, unknowing things by bringing them out where I can see them.” Her works have a haunting quality, the gazing eyes of the figures seeming to express grief or sorrow. Some have poetry or sayings written on the bottom or incorporated into the piece. The one called Mourning Urn (1998) has an opening designed like the body of a seraphic woman, supine over a scene of angels below, with these words incised on the base: “On yonder distant / knoll / Daisies / bow to the / breeze. / Evening sun is setting / The Lonesome Dove / coo / Shadows pull down the / curtains of time / Perhaps it / Or maybe its mine. / Ravin call. / Then Twilight Takes over, / Its, all, Its all.”
Allison C. Meier, 2025
Text written as part of “Rethinking Biography,” an initiative supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).