BRIGITTE JOHANNA
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In high school, her teachers encouraged her to pursue art as a career and so did her father, who delighted in Brigitte’s exceptional gift. After the start of World War II, she was fortunate enough to be able to attend the art school at Berlin’s Lette Society, from which she graduated with a degree in graphic design in 1944. Fleeing the Russian army at the end of the war, her family spent several years as refugees in the small town of Rotenburg in Hessia. Brigitte supported herself by painting portraits, house portraits, landscapes, local advertisements and giving art lessons, but yearned for the lively, sophisticated art scene in the nearby city of Kassel.
In 1948 she applied to and was accepted at Kassel’s renowned “Staatliche Kunst Akademie”, which had just started again, after lying in the ruins of 1945’s massive destruction, graduating after four years of self-directed studies. During that time, she met her future husband Joe McArdle (who was stationed there as an American airman), although family and personal circumstances made marriage impossible at the time. She then moved to Frankfurt, where she worked in the graphics department of A.G.Publications for a time, before moving to Munich. After that she managed a department in a Munich publishing house until Joe (who had established himself back home) asked her to come to Boston, MA where they were married in December of 1955.
A year later they moved to Boston’s southwestern suburbs, where they made a life together and raised their son Barry. It was difficult for Brigitte to pursue her art during this time, but years later she finally did start in earnest again, taking Collagraphy courses at the DeCordova Museum School in Lincoln, Ma and Etching classes at Wheaton College in Norton Ma, to give her art new and exciting avenues. Joe worked as a printing broker and carried a portfolio of her prints with him every day, creating quite a following for her works among his clients. But this great arrangement came to an end when Joe became disabled with a serious illness and needed care. Brigitte sold her printing press and went back to painting. Her creations are now being turned into Giclee prints by the Boston “Singer Editions” Studio. She paints memories and dreams – recreating scenes of remembered and fancied moments in the vivid colors that live in her heart and mind. She is now in her nineties, very private and still working.
In 1948 she applied to and was accepted at Kassel’s renowned “Staatliche Kunst Akademie”, which had just started again, after lying in the ruins of 1945’s massive destruction, graduating after four years of self-directed studies. During that time, she met her future husband Joe McArdle (who was stationed there as an American airman), although family and personal circumstances made marriage impossible at the time. She then moved to Frankfurt, where she worked in the graphics department of A.G.Publications for a time, before moving to Munich. After that she managed a department in a Munich publishing house until Joe (who had established himself back home) asked her to come to Boston, MA where they were married in December of 1955.
A year later they moved to Boston’s southwestern suburbs, where they made a life together and raised their son Barry. It was difficult for Brigitte to pursue her art during this time, but years later she finally did start in earnest again, taking Collagraphy courses at the DeCordova Museum School in Lincoln, Ma and Etching classes at Wheaton College in Norton Ma, to give her art new and exciting avenues. Joe worked as a printing broker and carried a portfolio of her prints with him every day, creating quite a following for her works among his clients. But this great arrangement came to an end when Joe became disabled with a serious illness and needed care. Brigitte sold her printing press and went back to painting. Her creations are now being turned into Giclee prints by the Boston “Singer Editions” Studio. She paints memories and dreams – recreating scenes of remembered and fancied moments in the vivid colors that live in her heart and mind. She is now in her nineties, very private and still working.