Michael Bedard

Artist Biography

Michael Bedard was born and raised in Windsor, Ontario, Canada and eventually settled in Los Angeles in the late sixties. He first entered the art marketplace in 1977 with a series of whimsical and allegorical art prints and postesr, many of which are still in print today. Bedard's "Sitting Ducks' poster is one of the most widely recognized and largest selling posters in the history of the medium. He has consistently topped the list of best-selling poster artists for nearly twenty years. Very few artists can make a similar claim. In the early eighties, Bedard was looking for a way to express a broad range of feelings about the human condition and wanted to use humor as a vehicle for addressing very serious issues such as vulnerability, alienation and anxiety, as well as social and political observations. Bedard chose the duck because it symbolized the vulnerability and attitude that comprises the human psyche.

The duck characters immediately struck a chord with people about how fragile we feel in these modern times. The illusion that creature comforts create a safety zone from the dangers of life is so pervasive that many actually hide behind these paper-thin walls and feel protected. The "Sitting Duck” message pokes a funny hole through this fragile concept. It shows that even when one is having a "safe” moment relaxing with friends on a lounge chair with a favorite drink; one can suddenly become a target of one of life's merciless hunters. That theme of vulnerability carries through the Bedard duck art, prints and poster series and has allowed the artist to expand his concept to examine the frailty of politics and even relationships.

Bedard's art, prints and posters, both on the canvas and on the screen, are characterized by his uncanny ability to create an image with depth in both artistic quality and meaning. There is nearly always a social commentary that lies underneath his whimsical imagery. One must look beyond the simple visual statement employed by the composition to the real purpose of the painting, usually an important social issue that concerns us all.

Michael Bedard Art, Prints and Posters Collection