JUDY PAXTON BRUCE
STUDIO ON GALLOWAY WASH CAVE CREEK, AZ 480-437-9995
EMAIL: JBRUART@MSN.COM
STUDIO ON GALLOWAY WASH
480-437-9995
CAVE CREEK, ARIZONA
ARTIST STATEMENT
Majoring in studio oil painting in the 60’s, I explored pop art, impressionism and expressionism. In graduate school my professors pushed me towards abstract expressionism buy my female figures kept popping out and I began t work in a surrealistic expressionist manner, exploring texture, color and intense emotion through abstract figural work.
As in Dubuffet’s work and in “outsider” art, which I collect; the accidental, the random, the “scribble” fascinate me. Dubuffet believed, like the surrealists, that the subconscious mind was the key to art. When I paint, I go in to a zone and my right brain takes over and my people appear.
The late Ed Pasche and the Chicago Imagists, Annette Messager, DeKooning and Francis Bacon are great influences. I agree when Messager says that being an artist means incessantly healing one’s wounds and simultaneously opening them again in the process. My paintings and prints are automatic, accidental, surreal and dreamlike exploring what it is to be female, human. I am celebrating our strengths and singing our praise, but also, empathizing with our extreme vulnerability. My work is about hope and sorrow and despair and joy. I explore issues of friendship, multi-culturalism, loneliness, vulnerability, strength, beauty, life, decay and disguises.
Max Ernst, whose frottages I have always admired, says that he looks to a universe of disturbing imagery that lies on the tip of the eye’s and mind’s tongue; and I believe that speaks to my work. My art lies in the deepest heart, dealing with life, death, age and disease with my color and texture generating feelings of hope, strength and even joy.
Judy Paxton Bruce was born in the s Judy Paxton Bruce was born in the small town of Danville, Illinois on a lake with forests and gardens surrounding her. Everyone knew, even when she was a young child, that Judy was an artist because of her constant coloring, fantasizing and weird imagination. From fourth grade on, her teachers sat her at the back of the room painting for the local contests. She has always been passionate about color and loved working figuratively. In college, painting continued to be a passion but after walking into a classroom, she fell in love with teaching and spent thirty five years working in elementary and junior high art. Judy made a difference in the lives of hundreds of children in Skokie, Illinois. During that time she spent summers painting. Judy and her husband, like their parents, had an antique and folk art business for over 25 years doing shows on the weekends. They moved to Cave Creek in 2001 soon after retirement where Judy has painted full time in her studio on Galloway Wash. 1968—Bachelor of Fine Arts, Illinois Wesleyan University. Major in painting, Minor in education. 1968-1978--Elementary Art teacher, Skokie, Illinois 1978—2001—Junior High School Art teacher 1979—Northern Illinois University summer MFA program 1980—Began Masters Degree Program at the Chicago Consortium of Colleges 1981---Began J. Bruce Antiques—dealing in Folk Art, Americana and toys 1984—Interdisciplinary Arts Masters Degree from Loyola University, Chicago 1984—TDK “Japan Trails’85” won 2 week all expenses paid trip to Japan with student. 1985—Winner of the Kohl International Teaching Award for Excellence in Education. 1989—Published article in the School Arts Magazine on Interdisciplinary Arts 1993—Produced, with students, a multicultural mural for the Cole Taylor Bank, Skokie, Illinois —Awarded Illinois State Board of Education “Those Who Excel” 1997— “Marjorie Wedell Award” for exemplary service to School District #69 2001—January—Retired from Skokie School District #69 2002—Moved from Skokie, Illinois to Cave Creek, Arizona and Studio on Galloway Wash 2004—Hosted a studio in “Hidden in the Hills” a studio tour-show in the foothills north of Phoenix 2005--- Z Gallery, Rhode Island, “heART Goes Red for Women” show. Art was on the brochure cover 2005—Co-chair Youth Art Sonoran Arts League 2005—October 7-Herberger Theater Art Show “Not Just Another Pretty Face” 2005—Host studio for Sonoran Arts League “Hidden in the Hills” 2006—Glass Art Class in San Migel Alende, Mexico 2006—Conceived and produced the first Sonoran Arts League Summer Art Camp 2006—Host studio for Sonoran Arts League “Hidden in the Hills” 2007—Chairman of Visual Arts Cave Creek Fine Arts Festival 2007—Chairman of SAL 2nd Summer Art Studio 2007—Co-chair Youth Art Sonoran Arts League Judy Paxton Bruce was born in the small town of Danville, Illinois on a lake with forests and gardens surrounding her. Everyone knew, even when she was a young child, that Judy was an artist because of her constant coloring, fantasizing and weird imagination. From fourth grade on, her teachers sat her at the back of the room painting for the local contests. She has always been passionate about color and loved working figuratively. In college, painting continued to be a passion but after walking into a classroom, she fell in love with teaching and spent thirty five years working in elementary and junior high art. Judy made a difference in the lives of hundreds of children in Skokie, Illinois. During that time she spent summers painting. Judy and her husband, like their parents, had an antique and folk art business for over 25 years doing shows on the weekends. They moved to Cave Creek in 2001 soon after retirement where Judy has painted full time in her studio on Galloway Wash. 1968—Bachelor of Fine Arts, Illinois Wesleyan University. Major in painting, Minor in education. 1968-1978--Elementary Art teacher, Skokie, Illinois 1978—2001—Junior High School Art teacher 1979—Northern Illinois University summer MFA program 1980—Began Masters Degree Program at the Chicago Consortium of Colleges 1981---Began J. Bruce Antiques—dealing in Folk Art, Americana and toys 1984—Interdisciplinary Arts Masters Degree from Loyola University, Chicago 1984—TDK “Japan Trails’85” won 2 week all expenses paid trip to Japan with student. 1985—Winner of the Kohl International Teaching Award for Excellence in Education. 1989—Published article in the School Arts Magazine on Interdisciplinary Arts 1993—Produced, with students, a multicultural mural for the Cole Taylor Bank, Skokie, Illinois 1996—Awarded Illinois State Board of Education “Those Who Excel” 1997— “Marjorie Wedell Award” for exemplary service to School District #69 2001—January—Retired from Skokie School District #69 2002—Moved from Skokie, Illinois to Cave Creek, Arizona and Studio on Galloway Wash 2004—Hosted a studio in “Hidden in the Hills” a studio tour-show in the foothills north of Phoenix 2005--- Z Gallery, Rhode Island, “heART Goes Red for Women” show. Art was on the brochure cover 2005—Co-chair Youth Art Sonoran Arts League 2005—October 7-Herberger Theater Art Show “Not Just Another Pretty Face” 2005—Host studio for Sonoran Arts League “Hidden in the Hills” 2006—Glass Art Class in San Migel Alende, Mexico 2006—Conceived and produced the first Sonoran Arts League Summer Art Camp 2006—Host studio for Sonoran Arts League “Hidden in the Hills” 2007—Chairman of Visual Arts Cave Creek Fine Arts Festival 2007—Chairman of SAL 2nd Summer Art Studio 2007—Co-chair Youth Art Sonoran Arts League gination. From fourth grade, her teachers sat her at the back of the room painting for the local contests. She has always been passionate about color and loved working figuratively. In college, painting continued to be a passion but after walking into a classroom, she fell in love with art teaching and spent thirty five years working in elementary and junior high art. Judy made a difference in the lives of hundreds of children in Skokie, Illinois. During that time she spent summers painting. Judy and her husband, like their parents, had an antique and folk art business for over 25 years doing shows on the weekends. They moved to Cave Creek in 2001 soon after retirement where Judy has painted full time in her studio on Galloway Wash.
mall town of Danville, Illinois on a lake with forests and gardens surrounding around her. Everyone knew, even when she was a young child, that Judy was an artist because of her constant coloring, fantasizing and weird ima
1968—Bachelor of Fine Arts, Illinois Wesleyan University. Major in painting, Minor in education.
1968-1978--Elementary Art teacher, Skokie, Illinois
1978—2001—Junior High School Art teacher
1979—Northern Illinois University summer MFA program
1980—Began Masters Degree Program at the Chicago Consortium of Colleges
1981---Began J. Bruce Antiques—dealing in Folk Art, Americana and toys
1984—Interdisciplinary Arts Masters Degree from Loyola University, Chicago 1984—TDK “Japan Trails’85” won 2 week all expenses paid trip to Japan with student.
1985—Winner of the Kohl International Teaching Award for Excellence in Education.
1989—Published article in the School Arts Magazine on Interdisciplinary Arts
1993—Produced, with students, a multicultural mural for the Cole Taylor Bank, Skokie, Illinois
1996—Awarded Illinois State Board of Education “Those Who Excel”
1997— “Marjorie Wedell Award” for exemplary service to School District #69
2001—January—Retired from Skokie School District #69
2002—Moved from Skokie, Illinois to Cave Creek, Arizona and Studio on Galloway Wash
2004—Hosted a studio in “Hidden in the Hills” a studio tour-show in the foothills north of Phoenix
2005--- Z Gallery, Rhode Island, “heART Goes Red for Women” show. Art was on the brochure cover
2005—Co-chair Youth Art Sonoran Arts League
2005—October 7-Herberger Theater Art Show “Not Just Another Pretty Face”
2005—Host studio for Sonoran Arts League “Hidden in the Hills”
2006—Glass Art Class in San Migel Alende, Mexico
2006—Conceived and produced the first Sonoran Arts League Summer Art Camp
2006—Host studio for Sonoran Arts League “Hidden in the Hills”
2007—Chairman of Visual Arts Cave Creek Fine Arts Festival
2007—Chairman of SAL 2nd Summer Art Studio
2007—Co-chair Youth Art Sonoran Arts League
