Jody Bergsma good cute art

I always loved the work of Jody Bergsma it is so fun, I mean really fun, bright and cheerul worlds filled with magical dragons, unicorns and happy little critters. Seeing one of her paintings I had always seen in my grandmas room as a child helped inspire this article.

“Lest we forget just a little light finds the darkness filled with friends.” Written in the corner of one of the great but little known works of art by Jody Bergsma this phrase is as captivating as the picture it is written on. A gentle warm water color with wide eyed and incredibly cute characters holding a candle in the darkness and surrounded by little creatures that could have come straight out of a fairy realm. Bergsma is a true master artist her warm images tell stories all there own, often times such stories are fantastic in nature with worlds filled with dragons and unicorns. The greatest works however are often those that are the simplest. Great Moments in Life are Usually in the Vicinity of the Kitchen for example is a simple picture with a mother a child having a tea party together with some dolls and cute animals. Such cute works of art though often spurned by elitists are true strokes of genius. The image in question is a compositional master piece, spilling out of the edges of a square in the background and into the surrounding frame.
One of the things that makes Bergsma’s works of art so good is here ability to utilize less saturated colors in a way that makes them look bright, warm, and inviting. This could be a result of living in the Northwest where the leading school of artists in the past have been called masters of iridescent light. Such lighting though rarely associated with fantasy themes and even less commonly used in them is none the less perfect for such themes, as it is the lighting we often imagine and dream in. And so it is with Bergsma’s pictures, which seem somewhat as a dream, yet have a solidness emanating like a glow from the characters that sucks the viewer in.
While truly a master of soft and warm scenes Bergsma is no less a master at creating very iconic and graphical works of art. She has a unique tendency to place native and cultural symbology within her works of art and so gives them a unique sort of meaning that is all its own. Such symbols normally blend with the rest of the picture rather then dominating its structure. There are however exceptions to this, for example in the picture “Believe in a Beautiful Tomorrow” Bergsma off centers the entire composition of her piece with an encircled symbol backing a dragonfly. This symbology or allusion to the symbology of the world’s cultures along with the overall watery depth of the picture helps to give this work of art a peaceful feeling. Such serenity is rarely found in art and is evidence of Bergsma’s intelligence and skill as an artist, making solid color choices that are not overly saturated for images that are emotionally saturated. The truth of this powerful imagery and artistic choices is exemplified by the work of art “Affections.” “Affection” is a picture of a mother and daughter, seeming to flow into each other with their hair, done in a near grey scale and earth tones and surrounded by black. This work of art shows emotion like few other paintings are able to. It is through pictures such as this that Bergsma shows us with every paint stroke how art can be used both as a form of symbology and as a way to warm and decorate our lives, so that great works of art like hers make the world a little bit brighter.