Artist Member
My Three Muses
Wood block print on Japanese paper
56 x 51″
Muses: Great Aunt Katie Kerwien, 1st Art Teacher, Union City, NJ; Sophie Johnston, Sculpture Teacher; and Betty Friedan, Feminine Mystique
Why Oh Why Do I Feel This Tingling of Joy
Acrylic on wood and carved
20 x 20”
Won Honorable Mention, Morean Art Center Art Show, St.Petersburg, FL, August 29, 2020
My Thirteen Grandchildren
Altered New York Times front pages
Accordion artist’s book
33 x 11″
She shellacked the front page of the New York Times and painted each of her Grandchildren’s portrait on each front page during Trump’s impeachment trial and gave one to each grandchild. The paintings were photographed and reproduced as an Accordion book.
Wondrous Landmark, The Fairest of Them All
Judith Patterson
BIO
Judy graduated with a BS from Rutgers University, BFA and Masters in Fine Arts from University of South Florida. She enjoys mixed media like painting, wood cut printmaking, sculpture, and the book arts using all tools available, even power tools. She has taught over the years in elementary and junior high schools and printmaking at Hillsborough Community College. Now retired, Judy continues to be an active NEBA member, she travels to New England to visit her daughter, Susan Marsh (NEBA Membership Coordinator), and she still finds joy in art projects everyday.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
My life has been one like a race car driver, bracing to be in the middle of the race, taking the curves as fast as I can. Using power tools, I stroke and brush, showing my tensions, dramatic lines, and images of intense motion. I am 90. My pistons slip….
The checkered flag occurs at the end of the race. I must be able to integrate death, as part of life. The end is fulfillment. I have lived through World War II, Auschwitz, Hiroshima, the Cold War, the Desert War, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now COVID-19.
The answer is to grow. Whatever grows never grows old. I must be adaptive and learn everything about life. Is it possible to change radically at this stage? I want to have integrity; maybe that’s all I have left.
I do not want a meaningless existence. I will do the ordinary well in the time I have left, will keep tending my garden, and hope to survive with dignity while passing it on. My true purpose is to understand the world and to find my place in it. The slant of the sun is different, lower now as the sun lifts each morning over the shipyard across the Channel from me in Tampa. I have learned what in life is valuable and hope for continued renewal. Suffering is a staple of life, giving me strength to know that pain is normal and disappointment a rule. Work, Family, Friendship and the Arts are wonderful exceptions.
Laurence of Salem
Wood cut print