Since 2001, Mrs. Blake had been a sculptor affiliated with the Kaskey Studio in Brentwood, Md., and had done sculpting on the National World War II Memorial on the Mall. Joanna C. Blake, a figurative sculptor whose works include the memorial for the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bladensburg in Maryland and relief panels honoring slaves buried at the Alexandria Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery in Virginia, died May 22 while vacationing in Italy. She was near Florence when she was thrown from the back of a motorcycle on which she was riding, said her husband, Ike Blake. Joanna Campbell was born in Mobile, Ala., on May 22, 1977, and graduated from Alabama’s Auburn University in 1999 with a degree in fine arts. To the American side, the Battle of Bladensburg during the War of 1812 was a tactical defeat, but it “galvanized the nation,” leading to the successful defense only weeks later of the port of Baltimore against British attack, Mrs. Blake told The Washington Post in 2014.

Source: Washington Post May 28, 2016 19:41 UTC