Welcome to Jean Judd Textile Art
Textile Art...Discover
the Possibilities!
Touchable Textile Art: When was the last time you wanted to reach out and touch a painting or photograph? Did you have an urge to run your hand over the artwork and feel the texture? With textile artwork, much like sculpture and woodcarvings, this is one of the first reactions clients have to my artwork. They want to feel the texture of the hand stitching, feel the fabric, get closer to the piece. Viewers are naturally drawn into textile art, and it is a great addition to any fine art collection whether the focus is contemporary, non-objective, geometric, abstract, graphic, modern, or conceptual art.
My web site (www.jeanjudd.com) is a continually changing "work-in-progress" itself, focusing on my own textile artwork, commonly referred to as "hand stitched paintings" by many viewers. It is updated almost weekly with new exhibition information, new artwork, completed commissions, experiments in marbling, and new hand dyed fabrics. Be sure to check back often to see what is happening.
As a working textile artist, new and exciting experiments are always in progress. Be sure to check back often for updates on what is happening in my art studio. The first nine pieces experimenting with marbling on fabric are now completed and are on the Aged Psychedelic Series page.
"I don't create art for "everyone's" collection, I create textile art for the RIGHT collection. Take time to look at all the examples shown here on this site. There just might be something here that is for YOUR collection and your collection alone." --Jean M. Judd, Textile Artist
Inspiration
Color Palette Inspiration:
I am asked quite often by art collectors and gallery personnel where my inspiration comes from when I am choosing colors for my textile artworks. I hadn't really thought much about where these choices came from as they happen intuitively as I am developing the work. Sometimes it is a specific piece of hand dyed or dye painted fabric that I have created myself in the dye studio.
In reflecting on this more, it often comes from my every day experience too. Each morning I am blessed with the opportunity to witness the rising of the sun over the lake and trees out my studio window. Each evening I spend several minutes watching the sun set over the rolling hills and forest from our back deck. We are very lucky to have unobstructed views of these glorious works of art each day created by nature.
The evolving and changing colors of these daily happenings just become the starting point in many of my artworks. In looking at the Contaminated Water series which is focused on blues, it is evident that this comes from the local lakes and rivers that I visit frequently as well as from numerous trips to the Boundary Waters, Woodland Caribou, and Quetico wilderness areas.
"Look outside the frame!"
Not all art has to be contained within a heavy wood or metal frame, shielded by glass, and protected from dirt, dust, or from being touched. My textile artwork is free of these more traditional trappings. It is hung directly on the wall, and it can be touched. Most of my work is designed to be moved, rotated from horizontal to vertical, and combined with another piece or pieces, for a unique display.
Not all art is easy to understand like a landscape, a street scene, or a still life painting of a bowl of fruit or vase of flowers. Some art the viewer must look at again, and again, and yet again. It very well may need more than a two or three second glance. It must be experienced and sometimes the viewer must contribute to the artwork too, mentally adding their own personal experience to what they are seeing before them.
What is your frame of mind at this moment as you are looking at the art? Are you frazzled from a long day at work? Are you angry at the guy who cut you off in traffic and almost caused an accident? Were you expecting something other than you are seeing right now? Look deeper, look at a different angle, quit trying to understand a particular piece of art and just sit quietly with it; see what the art has to show you or tell you about itself.
To the right is an example of displaying two of the Contaminated Water series artworks together in a vertical orientation. Near Right is Contaminated Water #1 and to the right of it, is Contaminated Water #2: Pond Scum.
Adding Contaminated Water #3: Sludge to the display on the other side of Contaminated Water #1 would make a very dynamic piece that can also be rotated into a horizontal position. The natural curves of #2 and #3 give it an organic feel.
Titling Artwork
Putting a name to a piece of completed artwork can be the most difficult part of the entire creation process for me. I may start with a title when I am first designing, painting fabric, and selecting commercial fabrics for the piece. As the artwork changes and morphs into the final composition, the title may no longer fit the artwork, or my subconscious will have brought up a completely different title.
Some days I wonder if I would be better off renaming all of my work to "What Ever You Want it to Be #1" etc. Many times, when I am at gallery receptions and I am talking to collectors, they come up with such different things that they see when viewing my art. The titles that they suggest give the work special meaning to them. One collector suggested that my Abstract Textures pieces were "Random Strokes of Color". That would have been another great title for the series of work. There are others who look at the titles, look at the artwork, shrug their shoulders and move on.
In my opinion, titles are so the artist can differentiate one of their artworks from another. When we create hundreds of pieces over a lifetime, they tend to blur together, but the titles help us to build a mental connection with the piece. It certainly makes it easier for galleries to select work and promote it if there is a title.
Since my work is primarily classified as abstraction, I think that sometimes putting a title to it limits the piece in some way. The title can be too suggestive and narrow which then limits its appeal to collectors. I want the viewer of the work to spend time with the artwork, look at it closely as well as from a distance. I want them to engage with the work and put their own life experience onto what they are seeing.
Because abstraction work doesn't depict a specific place or time, but more of a concept: a mixture of colors, textures, and shadowy images, the brain now has the wonderful opportunity to create a different artwork every time the work is seen. This makes the work exciting and different each time. That is also why most of my work is designed to be displayed in several different orientations so that it physically changes from time to time as well.
Detail of Abstract Textures 2.4 shown on right.
Studio
My studio is focused on creating textile artworks in the art quilt and textile genre that has been recognized by fine art curators across the United States as works of fine art. Each piece is designed, constructed, hand stitched, and hand bound by me, Jean M. Judd, a full-time studio art quilter and textile artist. I do not hire out any aspects of my work. My hand created visions, is what makes them truly unique from other textile artworks.
To learn more about my studio or to see a few examples of my process, check out the other pages on my site which can be accessed via the menu bar.
I can be reached by email using the Contact Artist page located on the menu bar, or by phone at (715) 566-0212.
You can also contact me at my direct e-mail address: jean@jeanjudd.com
If you are interested in being included in my yearly postcard mailing, please use the Contact Artist link and send me your mailing address. I do not share my mailing list with any other businesses, artists, or organizations. I do not send out email blasts or newsletters, so you won't be bombarded by these in your Inbox from me.
I am looking forward to hearing from you!
