August 8, 2005

Campbell resident turns to art after surviving ovarian cancer

Work will be featured at Kings Mountain Art Fair over Labor Day Weekend

Wander down redwood forested paths, discovering art including the art of Campbell resident Bridgid O’Malley. The ovarian cancer survivor changed her life’s work leaving high tech/bio tech behind to pursue her love of glass art.

O’Malley loves gardening among the ferns and shady areas. She loves Hawaii and scuba diving. She always enjoyed making stained glass as a hobby. And when she became an ovarian cancer survivor, she rethought her life to focus on doing the things she loves.

Brigid O’Malley creates glasswork with tropical themes. This piece is entitled Heliconia Wall Sconce.

She gave up working in Human Resources in various Silicon Valley high tech and biotech companies and went back into art full-time a year ago. “Working with glass makes me feel healthy,” she says.

O’Malley grew up in Arizona where you couldn’t grow anything.“My family came to this country from Ireland, via France, four generations ago. We came in through Louisiana and one of the three brothers ended up owning a lumber company in Colorado Springs in 1877. My part of the family moved to Arizona before it was a state.”

She moved to the Bay Area in 1981 to set up and design retail shops for the outdoor industry. She took classes in stained glass making at the Crucible, but says it is expensive to do stained glass as a hobby.

When she returned to making glass, artist friends advised her to focus her work on a theme that she loves. While her work predominantly focuses on “slab glass” sculpture (about half for outdoor and half for indoor display) she is also adding lighting and architecturally interesting glass-work. For one patron she is making special sconces for her home theatre room that look like art deco period pieces.

“My work is evolving,” says O’Malley, “as I find my niche in the art world and turn the work I love into a commercially viable venture.”

About Kings Mountain Art Fair
The 42nd annual Kings Mountain Art Fair will take place Labor Day Weekend. The redwood trees provide an outdoor gallery for one of the top juried arts fairs in the United States. It is located only 30 minutes from Campbell, in the hills above Palo Alto and Woodside.

One hundred percent of the proceeds from this all volunteer run event, are used to run the community in such areas as funding the volunteer fire company, providing enrichment grants for the local three-room public school and so forth.

The event takes place over the three-day Labor Day Weekend, beginning on Saturday Sept. 3 through Monday Sept. 5 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Kings Mountain Community Center/Fire Station, 13889 Skyline Blvd, Woodside. Admission is free.

Call (650) 851-2710 or visit www.kingsmountainartfair.org for more information.

Directions from Campbell: 280 north to Woodside Road west; right on Kings Mountain Road to Skyline, right 1 mile to the fair.