ARTIST STATEMENT
I am a multi-disciplinary artist working in painting, sculpture, relief and video. My current body of work has been focused on the destruction caused by human interaction as well as natural disasters and the impact on our environment. Specifically, I’ve found the images of destruction in war zones such as Syria, Gaza, Ukraine and Afghanistan shocking, and these have provoked me to respond.
The impact of war is often haphazard, seemingly random, often leaving only faint characteristics of the original place. In the rubble, one often sees colors and textures, fragile hints of human possessions, interior furnishings, even nature rebounding. It is from this imagery that I have attempted to respond.
I choose materials that are often reclaimed and salvaged from my own previous works as well as found materials. Oil paint, wax and graphite are integrated and used for their plastic potential. The dialogue of the materials themselves becomes a critical element in each piece, standing in for the visual ideas generated from what I see. In the end, each work is a synthesis of observation and the abstract considerations necessary to make a successful visual statement.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
My earliest influences include my paternal grandmother and great aunt Emily Kravzov (who was married to the renowned printmaker Emil Ganso), both of whom were artists working in New York City and Mohegan Lake, New York. As Russian immigrants they shared their passion for all the arts. Visiting their working studios enabled me to envision my own life as a woman artist. Pursuing my undergraduate degree at SUNY New Paltz in New York, I studied with the painter and sculptor Manuel Bromberg. Working as a WPA artist as well as a collaborator with Buckminster Fuller, Bromberg had an academic approach while encouraging a strong experimental ethic. Following undergraduate studies I worked in New York City as a textile designer and costume painter for a year and made the decision to leave the Northeast to live and study in the Southeast. After completing my MFA from the University of Georgia, I continued to travel, teach and work as a window display artist. I finally settled in Chattanooga, Tennessee. For the past four decades I’ve chosen to live in places outside the major metropolitan art centers and focus on my personal development, help build community awareness for the arts and raise a child. For the past 12 years, I have been employed as the Visual Arts Coordinator for AIM Center, where I work with adults with severe mental illness. Here, my understanding of what art is and who makes it has been greatly expanded and amplified.
© Judith Mogul