Born 1907, Callaway, Neb.; died 1986, Callaway, Neb.
Emery Blagdon did not intend to make art; he intended to heal. Born in 1907 in Nebraska, Blagdon spent most of his life as a farmer. He attended school through the eighth grade, and then went on to travel to the West Coast. After working in gold mines and on sawmills in California, he returned home in the 1920s. Shortly afterwards, his mother passed away of cancer, followed by his father years later. This experience in caretaking and the tragedy of losing his parents influenced him to explore alternative healing methods. In the 1950s, Blagdon began building the Healing Machine.
Blagdon’s Healing Machine was an intricate apparatus of metal and wire sculptures built inside a shed on his property. Using needlenose pliers, Blagdon would twist and join metal to create delicate hanging sculptures, adding foil, found objects and jars of minerals. In operation, the 800-square-foot space would come alive with moving parts, lights and tinkling sounds. Together, the sculptures, he believed, had healing abilities through their magnetic and kinetic energies. Over the course of 30 years, Blagdon created a wonder inside his rural shed. It eventually numbered more than 600 assemblages and paintings.
Upon his passing in 1986, the shed and everything in it went up for auction. A befriended pharmacist named Dan Dryden purchased the lot and spent the next 18 years stewarding and cataloguing the collection. He sought to find a permanent, protected home for the Healing Machine and eventually connected with the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in 2004, which owns a large number of the works.Now, Blagdon’s work is on display in galleries and museums across the United States.
—Emily Q. Slavin, Intuit Art Museum curatorial fellow
