Judith Ornstein
Judith Ornstein describes her work as such:
In the making of art I discover my humanity, which often becomes obscured amid a life that is moving too fast and filled with too much. Making art is a working process, every day, that engulfs my whole being. My work is very much about the process. It itself takes me places, suddenly and without reason and I delight in the things I do not plan.
I’m an abstract artist whose imagery melds poetic impulse with networks of shapes and forms. My current work recycles the detritus materials from the ‘Amazon Generation’. Various kinds of honeycomb, fluted and flat corrugate are the familiar by-products of our throw-away society and my raw materials. For me mundane, everyday objects are tools, shape-shifters for my creative use.
Cardboard imbues my sculptures with the conflict of permanence and impermanence. Humble materials, like corrugate, brings up the issue of ‘what gives art value’. The material lives as a sign of cultural excess and has a strong sustainability message. Viewers may see me as just a rescuer of recyclables but I also have a real love of these materials. They have a raw elegance that keeps these pieces timeless looking.
My work reside in a space between solidity and fragility. Hovering between 2 and 3 dimensions. The throw away quality of cardboard reflects an almost organic life span from development thru deterioration. Sculpture reveals itself in time and its deterioration adds to the process and mimics biological life. However Picasso’s cardboard guitars are over 120 years old and still looking great. So the material is more durable than we think.
My sculptures are put together in a tangled space as a kind of improvisational universe. The process is a living experiment forming a bridge between thinking and doing. It is a process that overwhelms my conscious thoughts and instinctive reasoning. Without a color pallet the simple abstract, irregular shapes in various textures are combined to morph into a language dependent on position, shape and surface. I am always looking for a structure while moving parts around.
I want the work to be fun and humorous as well. So my shapes are often childish, poking fun at themselves. Shapes without a beginning or an end intrigue me most. The circles and ovals that have overwhelmed my work for years have extensive meaning, representing notions of wholeness, self and infinity. They are cyclic movements relating to women, celestial positioning and emotions. These organic shapes (out of stiff material) refer to our humanity and sensuality.