Thoughtful Gift Giving

My art is inspired by great love, simple beauty and the desire to share my dreams and my story. Children are my greatest source of inspiration, especially my own. Their innocence and easy acceptance of live guide my thoughts and my work.

If you'd like to give a unique and heartfelt gift to someone special for the holidays, please consider visiting my site on Imagekind.com. Prints, notecards and other items are available for purchase! Please contact me at judiharz@aol.com, for customized heirloom portraits,paintings or for other information.My images are also perfect for inspirational gifts, birthdays and birth announcements!

Click here for more of Jude's art on Imagekind:
http://www.imagekind.com/MemberProfileGalleries.aspx?MID=b5b4a5ef-f273-465a-aaf7-738c7fdfa00b

A portion of the proceeds of all purchases will be donated to St. Jude's Children's Hospital.
“The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wildflowers...growin' and flyin'

My Wildflower series is taking shape:) Most of it remains in my thoughts. My "vision" of a painting, emerges from my "daydreaming" of which I do quite a bit:)I rely on my thoughts and some visual references such as photographs,as create. There is rarely concept work beforehand...no preliminary color studies or sketches. I rework the painting as needed. I prefer this process because my "errors", are actually experimentations and evidence of changes in my thoughts throughout the painting process.The end result reveals the "texture" and marks of my decisions. The richness of the surface, the underlying colors and scratches,cannot be easily reproduced.

However, while creating the "Wildflower" series, I have deviated from my usual process. These works warrant exploration (somewhere other than in my mind.) So I am painting small concepts, and other images,in hopes of successfully marrying my figures with highly textured, stylized fields. An interested observer, asked me via email, the scale of the flowers in the work on the door. Here is an image to gauge proportions...and of course there is an updated image of my daughter who posed for these paintings.

Enjoy!

Wildflower

My new "Field" paintings which will be called my "Wildflower" series and will be merged with two figures.The landscape will be highly textured, somewhat stylized and abstract, and the figures will be highly representational. I intend to crop them, with the female form being prominent. Tonight I began a painted "sketch" of one figure. I am very fortunate to have beautiful teen aged children who somewhat willingly comply when asked to model:)I actually took some lovely photographs of my 19 and soon to be 17 year olds. This monochromatic image is purely for concept but close to what I envisioned.

Wildflower
"And everything I know just fades away
And when a wildflower grows it picks its space
And that's the way it is when nature plays its lovely hand
We'll understand everything"...S.Crow

The Story Beneath Patterns and Layers

I am making progress on my "Field" painting. It will be one in a series of works that explores elements of painting and sculpture that I love most: real and implied texture and pattern.It is very stylized and will become much more sculptural as both metal and wood are added. The substrate surface is a recycled wooden, solid core door.

My paintings are always symbolic of something more, of the stories that resound in my mind. I am inspired by people, conversations and experiences, past and present. Replaying favorite thoughts, motivates the creation of my images. I often ask people to tell me their stories. A part of who I am,who my "storytellers" are, despite what others may think they know or "see", will undoubtedly emerge in one of my images. "Tell me a story."

Question:"What is truer than truth?"
Answer: ....."the story" (an old Jewish proverb)
There is always a story.

Jude's Upcoming Exhibits

You are invited!

Nov.15
"Hope" Exhibit Allentown Art Guild Laurita Winery
New Egypt, NJ
Dec. 5-21
"12 x 12" Austin Art Space Gallery Austin, TX
Jan. 2010 "Collaborative Arts" Escondido, CA
Jan.-14- Feb. 17, 2010
"Art Connections 6"
George Segal Gallery Montclair State University
Montclair, NJ

details to follow

Allentown Art Guild "Hope" Exhibit at Laurita Winery November 15, 2009

“Hope is the dream of a soul awake.”
OPENING RECEPTION: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2009
2-5 pm

The Golden Rule: A Charter for Our Souls...Compassion and Love

Religious thinker, author and former nun, Karen Armstrong, is the "designer" of the "Charter for Compassion",launched this November. It is a document, created by "the world" via a "sharing website", aimed toward uniting religious leaders to work collaboratively to achieve peace. Read more about Karen on the TED website, "ideas worth spreading." http://www.ted.com