Brad Rude (b. 1964)
Artist Brad Rude sees the world through the eyes of a Northwest artist who was born in Montana and has lived in Walla Walla most of his life.
His journeys through his grandfather’s folk art studio left him with the images of horses and carriages–his first carved horse still holds a place of prominence in his studio, next to his extensive collections of found objects, books, pictures and anything that might inspire him.
His passion for living in the country–his home and studio are tucked beneath Walla Walla’s Blue Mountains–have left him with a love of the Northwest and a concern for the human condition and Nature’s well-being. His art can be viewed as a simple offering of beauty, as he creates renderings of Mother Nature’s creatures–dogs, rhinos, lion, cows and horses. Or one can see each animal–Brad’s main object–surrounded by the emblems of the human conditions of uncertainty, danger, questions, joy.
His art and his creatures take form in sculptures which now reside on the sidewalks of downtown Walla Walla, in the Walla Walla Foundry’s breezeway, and in the collections of Microsoft, Nordstrom, Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, and the Boise Art Museum.
