Between Paper and Dream
Linda’s Creative JOURNEY
Linda Bladholm was born in San Francisco, grew up in Chicago as a beleaguered White Sox fan and earned a BFA at the University of San Francisco. In 1981 she took a leap of faith and relocated to Singapore and began her enthralling journey abroad embracing the multi lingual and cultural communities she encountered.
Her photographs capture a disappearing way of life in the book Singapore Memento published by Far Eastern Private Limited to commemorate 25 years of independence from British rule and shining a light on the everyday people and their ways of life from festivals to food stalls.
While living in Japan Bladholm wrote and photographed Kanazawa the Heart of Japan published by Noto Printing Company, a compilation that focuses on one of Japan’s more ancient and traditional cities on the Noto Peninsula facing the Sea of Korea.
Her meticulous and CURIOUS eye
turned to the ordinary sights, sounds, colors and textures that seemed extraordinary. Bladholm has happily traveled the world absorbing various arts, cuisines and cultures along the magical road of artistically inclined adventure.
Her late father was a painter and art educator and, growing up with no TV, he encouraged Linda and her three siblings to paint, draw and work with clay.
She is inspired by her love of nature, animals, Shalimar (perfume and gardens) and coconut curry noodle laksa. It was formative summers camping and living off the land, swimming in Lake Michigan and foraging for wild edibles that made a lasting impression on Bladholm where she made friends with wild rabbits, chipmunks, deer and other animals that later inspired her artwork. “Sometimes look at the parachutes of fluttering milkweed seed pods or the eye of a fawn” she says, adding “wear woodland binoculars at all times"!
After the aforementioned decade overseas Bladholm moved to Miami Beach where she wrote and illustrated three books demystifying the contents of Asian, Indian and Latin and Caribbean grocery stores published by Renaissance Books as a Take-it-With-You (stick-it-in-your-pocket-or-purse-guide) praised by The New York Times and Los AngelesTimes.
By then the author was an international expert on the cuisines she cracks the culinary code on from pad Thai to pulled tea.
She WROTE a column for the Miami Herald
For 22 years called The Ethnic Explorer exploring various cuisines from Isan Thai salads to Peruvian ceviche with a side of cancha (popped corn). She also consulted for the Anthony Bourdain shows No Reservations and TheLayover Miami where she took Bourdain to off-the-beaten path places including a Nigerian shindig in a warehouse with fork-fulls of singed goat pepper pot and frog gigging in the Everglades which is not for the faint of heart. Get in an airboat and shine a light for the glow of frog eyes and stab with a giant fork.We then feasted on fried frog legs at Derek’s Joint, wiping grease off on our pants.
Bladholm is a collage artist attaching paper pieces to backgrounds on old book covers, mat board remnants or paper she calls “painting with paper” juxtaposing contrasting images.
Her tools are scissors of various sizes and sharpness “for hacking out a background” to “snipping teeny shapes to fit moth wings”. Her work explores nature, sea life, animals, moon chickens in Malaysia and elsewhere, dinosaurs in space and fairy tales featuring animals such as Snow White and the Seven Pups and Puss in Boots in thigh high boots and imagery such as a mermaid riding a whale and The Little Prince as a yellow penguin floating to his planet with the rose. Her work is fantastical, whimsical and beautiful, full of mystery with a bit of drama.
In early 2025, she relocated to the Puna district on the Big Island of Hawaii
Here she resides on a six acre farm where she grows curry and laksa leaves along with Malabar spinach, lemongrass and ice cream bean pods.
From this rainforest retreat complete with three dogs and a cat, she launched herself as The Pet Portrait Artist Extraordinaire—send your best and favorite photograph or photographs of your pet to the artist and she will create a one-of-a-kind collage depicting your beloved in a setting that reflects both of you.
