"Art is spirit made visible." C.M. Judge

The decision to devote one's life to making art is a curious one; seemingly self-indulgent on the one hand while sacrificial on the other. When I was a teenager, I knew intuitively that I wanted and needed to find a direction for my life that was "honorable." I loved to draw and found when making art that I gave myself over fully to the subject I was trying to capture with ink, pastel or paint. Being in these moments of creative flow made feel completely at ease loosing all sense of time. Other people reinforced that my capacity to draw and paint was gift - they could see through my artwork what I was seeing. My internal life, way of perceiving was brought forth for others to experience.

As an art major in college, I kept a careful watch out for artists of all kinds. Read about them, talked with them, felt challenged by their varied and often unusual viewpoints and ultimately concluded that as a whole these were people compelled to live their lives truthfully, honoring essential aspects of their humanity with insight, humor, vigor and joy. This was my tribe, an odd concoction of souls that I wouldn't want to live without!

My interest in other artists led me to value collaboration. No longer about the stroke of genius by one lone artist with guarantees of exceptional beauty or absolute perfection; but rather, the choice to journey with others on a pathway made more perfect by our imperfections and more daring by our holding hands while leaping into the abyss. Making art in tandem with others whittles down the focus and force of creativity into its essential sharp point; art is a form of communication that demands we open our hearts to each other.

View C.M. Judge's work here

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