Judith Roston Freilich

Billowing (2018)
mixed media, metallic paint, joint compound and fiberfill on sanded paper
75.5 x 2 x 60 in.

My work begins from the moment I step inside myself and it reflects the moments that live within each of us, the aspects and histories of the cycle of life, of time, and of the journeys we all experience.

The history of the process is important in my art. There are always remnants visible from the path that each piece takes on the way to being resolved. As I work, moments are revealed in the lives of imaginary organic images that live in enigmatic time and space. These spontaneous, intuitive organisms have unique characteristics and journeys all collected from life’s experiences.

The drawings and the textiles invite us to step inside the complicated journey within each of us. They reveal both the devastating parts of life and the overwhelmingly beautiful parts. The marks, stitches, and materials in the work reflect our complex rhythms, incongruities, and relationships. There are bursts of energy — fierce, uncontrolled, uninhibited urgencies — and beautiful swells of serenely floating calm and deep searches. In some work, the process seems unfinished, leaving traces of past journeys and exploration for the future. —Judith Roston Freilich

Life is a process of constant change wherein all living things are subject to age, decay and death; because previous life forms provide the basis of physical nourishment and evolution for all that is new, regeneration and bloom coexist alongside senescence and degeneration. This cyclical, existential and holistic process has long been a major theme of the arts and religion.

As the past gets obliterated from memory and buried under earth’s dust, archaeologists, scientists, historians and artists work to excavate, discover and interpret that which was forgotten. (IL)

— Bruce Thorne, Bruce, Chicago based visual artist and art critic, 2018
Judith Roston Freilich, Release, page 1, 2018

© Judith Roston Freilich