Trunk with Slash, 1985
Resin, 32" x 43 1/2" x 5"
Born in 1932 in Geneva, Switzerland, Emilie Brzezinski grew up in Berkeley, California, and completed her B.A. at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, in 1953. She received a scholarship to Boston Museum School, Massachusetts, in 1954 and completed a one year apprenticeship at Atelier du Feu in 1956. She started her art career in the 1970s with a series of solo shows in Washington, D.C. and New York. Working in a variety of media, including resin, latex, wood fiber, and wood, her expressive themes always relate to nature. Eventually she focused entirely on monumental wood sculpture, using chainsaws and axes to carve forms that took inspiration from the wood she found at mills, gardens, and development sites. In the last two decades she has exhibited in the United States and Eastern Europe, particularly in the Czech Republic where her family is from.