Education
Bagley initially went to the University of Tennessee with a scholarship for journalism. However, after taking an art course there, she says that she was "hooked" on art
Bagley received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Arizona State University (Tempe, Arizona) in 1969. Bagley realized that her paintings were really two-dimensional ideas about objects she wished to build.
In 1971, she received an Master of Arts from Arizona State University and in 1980 an Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from the University of North Texas (Denton, Texas).
Career
Her sculptures are made from many different materials including metal, stone, human hair and fabric. Recently she has also included video into her art She lives and works in Dallas,Texas.
Bagley"s sculptures are both abstract and figurative.
She says, "My abstract figures attempt to speak of the human spirit as an icon of human experience, although frozen outside time." The Portrait, made of unpolished marble, evokes classical sculpture with a modern, abstract sensibility. Bagley cites artists Louise Bourgeois and Francis Bacon as two of her favorite artistic inspirations.
Bagley has also created public sculpture and art projects. In 2015, a 14-year-old public art created with in collaboration with Tom Orr and located at White Rock Lake in Dallas was recently the cause of controversy when the city of Dallas determined that it did not have the funds available to restore the art and that it must be demolished.
A compromise was reached: Dallas will commission another work from Bagley and Orr.
Another collaborative project that Bagley and Orr worked on was the creation of sets and costumes for the Dallas Opera"s 50th Anniversary and performance of Verdi"s Nabucco. The design and creation of the sets and costumes took more than a year to complete. The Arkansas Arts Center (Little Rock, Arkansas), the City of Dallas,Texas, Delegate March College (Corpus Christi, Texas), the El Paso Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the University of Texas at Arlington are among the public collections holding work by Frances Bagley.
Many corporate entities also collect her art
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McFadden, Sarah, Going Places, Participant World War II The Outside Story, Creedmoor Psychiatric Center Art in America, volunteer 68, northern 6, Summer 1980, 51-55, 57-59, 61.
Taylor, Elmer, An Apprenticeship in England, Ceramics Monthly, volume 21, northern 1, January 1973, 28-29.
Watson-Jones, Virginia, Contemporary American Women Sculptors, Phoenix, Oryx Press, 1986, 32.
