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I Love Color!
I love the idea of a piece of cloth, white, pristine, open to endless possibilities. My quilts begin with hand dyed fabric as a springboard and move to deeper imagery by layering paint, found objects and beads---especially beads! Beads are seductive---if in doubt, Bead It Down!
I am primarily a textile artist, turning my art cloth into heavily embellished narrative cloth constructions. Beads and hand stitches are integral to my work for depth and texture. However, I really think it’s a bit of the “crow” in me, looking for that shiny object that sheds light.
Stitching with all these rich colors of thread and tiny beads is very meditative. The process is almost therapeutic and rhythmic. My greatest challenge in working with beads and embellishments is that I keep acquiring them and it is hard to know when to stop adding “just one more”.
Inspiration for my work comes from deep within, people I’ve known, places I’ve visited, and spiritual imagery mixed with folk art.
Although I grew up in Kentucky, I spent many summers in Louisiana with my paternal grandparents. I soaked in the smells, feel of the air, the bayous, clothes hung on the lines, the language, colors and people of the Cajun country of the early 50’s.
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Sunday Supper (detail)
38" x 27"
Private Collection
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Travelling by car with my maternal grandparents offered other sensory impressions as well. Molasses cooking in big pots on the side of the road on open fires, blackberry picking, diners with colorful metal table tops, padded plastic chairs in all colors, embroidered tablecloths, flowers in jelly jars, Grandmother’s quilts, feather beds and making button necklaces from a huge jar of buttons, has surely influenced my love of color. |
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Oh--- my Sixth Grade teacher told me I couldn’t draw and should probably not do art----I believed her, after all it was 1954! I believed.
In 1960, a high school exchange trip to France opened my eyes to “ART”. Even then I never took formal art classes but was an avid observer. Then in 1996, while living in Austin, TX, and loving the Southwest, I went to Mexico to take a surface design class and it changed everything---colors and textures abounded, I was hooked. Subsequent classes with Jane Dunnewold, in San Antonio, only served to inspire and challenge my work on the surface of cloth.
Spending 28 years in Texas, and now living in Santa Fe, I have definitely been influenced by the wealth of colors and rich folk art traditions.
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Don't Forget Your Texas Roots/Boots
53" x 94"
Collection of Lieutenant Commander & Mrs. B.J. Baumhover
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Don't Forget Your Texas Roots/Boots
(detail)
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Two Janes: What a Pair
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32" x 43" (detail)
Available for Purchase
There are two Janes who have especially influenced my work:
Jane Dunnewold who has given me a great love of art cloth, and Jane Burch Cochran who has given me the permission to push the limits.
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La Virgen de Las Americas
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48" x 84"
Available for Purchase
Inspired by my first trip to Mexico and the Virgen de Guadalupe, my 'Virgen' is a shrine to the miracles in all of us. Living in the Lone Star State at the time, I felt sure she would love opening her cloak and spilling out stars as well as roses, and having wings on her
beaded boots.
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"Different places on the face of the earth have different effluence, different vibration, different chemical exhaltation, different polarity with different stars: call it what you like. But the spirit of place is a great reality."
---D. H. Lawrence
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For more information about Judi and her work, please contact below.
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