Judith Wray	"Yellow Pages" a self-portrait	Where do I begin? A carved telephone book?  leather bound, "let your fingers do the walking" went an old ad for the yellow pages... These pages illustrate a transition
		On the left are Laci's fingers and my head! We caste his feet first in bronze and then moved on to his fingers and then his ear. Later, we would laugh about having a group show.

Judy Wray & Laszlo Krisch ( computer guru )

Laci taught me a new medium when he introduced me to computers and showed me how to write html.

No one had ever baked a loaf of bread for me before. Laci loves to cook. He was baking bread and had enough dough for two loaves. He made his loaf first, all neat and straight and orderly. Then he came to mine, and made mine in many sections, all wild and crazy. When he presented it to me, all hot and brown and crusty and smelling wonderful, I wanted to do something more than eat it. Commemorate it!   I bound it with twine and shellacked it all over several times. On the top of each curved section I wrote the verses from a poem by Thoreau. Those words run just as sinuously through our days and all our creating together in the last few years.   The Poem by Thoreau "We must learn to re-awaken and keep ourselves awake Not by mechanical aids, but by the infinite expectation of the dawn which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture or to carve a statue and so to make a few things beautiful. But it is far more glorious to carve and paint the atmosphere and medium through which we look. Which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Everyman is tasked to make his life even in its details worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour." Thoreau

The blood red story behind the bread..   This is actually important to me.. the way that art works. The way it does not matter 2 cents that Thoreau is dead or not. Art lies dormant waiting to snare. The poem by Thoreau  was on a tea box above our stove for years, till one day,  reaching up,  the words grabbed me by the throat. The grants people always make me laugh and cry, they ask questions like "how many people were affected by the artist on such and such a day, (to justify their  giving of funding). I remember once I was at a copying business, busily copying, and I looked out the  window to the train station across the street. There was a billboard. Rolling Rock Beer was being advertised.. but more than that.. Jim Morrison was talking. Jim Morrison was dead (The Door's) "Same as it always was" was what was written.. but it was not written the same as it always was, and the whole experience was an art experience one did not go into a museum for, dressed, prepared, ready to be enlightened. Art is a funny thing. I don't like commerce, the selling of art but I do like the way death doesn't have to stop anything. Kind of makes life worth living.

We all have beginnings! Mine didn't begin with me, nobody's does! My father inherited a Chapel in the woods and got to be minister by default,  slid right into it, singing his off key heart out and getting my sister and I to come along for the ride.    I don't think it is important where people are in space or time. Somebody said "Let death have no dominion", well that's how I feel. It doesn't. We work, play and communicate together, leaping boundaries all the time. ( Good tried and true example: Libraries  )   So what has this got to do with Digital artists? They possess skills which allow their creativity to take multiple leaps past any art form previously expressed. New technology has unleashed creativity from a thing with solid form to an idea in a virtual realm.   Houdini asks 100 people from an audience to come to the stage and stick out a finger to levitate a large body and together ..lift ! Together we can levitate large projects barely trying. The community draws value and inspiration from artists of all kinds. Together, we are an engine for change, to re invent, to explore and problem solve.      I began levitating unusual arts projects ( using who and what is all around), using simple copying machines, then Photoshop and the Internet.   The projects were born beginning about 12 years ago with a  collage using the photo copied images of hands and arms and even a few bones..

ARMS FOR ART,  1993

 

The collage of arms was 31 ft. wide and 12 ft high. The section shown here is the top, center portion. For the few weeks leading up to its assemblage, we made a call for photo copied arms and hands. Different color paper was welcomed. Different sizes were welcomed. No maximum quantity was stipulated. Seniors lined up at the YWCA in New Brunswick by the copying machine, chuckling that this was unusual and fun. Children from New Brunswick's Head Start program were welcomed to Kinkos           ( when it used to be across from the New Brunswick train station ). The manager passed out paper and crayons and the children spread out across the rugged floor and waited their turn to have their little hands photocopied in both black & white and color. Michael Preston, from Middlesex, NJ made 50 large copies of his long, (and hairy arm.)

The night we began to assemble all the collected images, Mike came and sat in the hallway helping to cut them all out like paper dolls. We took his 50 arms and created a wave spreading out on one side. It was the Arms for Art project which began to cut a path in front of me, leading me along. I received envelopes of photo copied hands in the mail from strangers. There was a feeling of being on target and a momentum going past myself as though some flow or current had been tapped into.

the Wizard behind the projects

Digital Projects & Shows Sponsored The Elephant Project, 2001 http://www.valweb.org/elephant/picture_page.htm The idea was that the images were links to the artists' internet servers and could change or disappear at any time. Some of them eventually did disappear. We all moved on. We liked the idea. One could continue the landscape by scrolling to the side, or down into the ground! At any moment the images might change. The images were also clic-able, so you could visit the person behind the image.   The Floating Art Project , 2002 http://www.valweb.org/floatart/about_floatart.htm   No gravity! We invited small images to float together and have kept them up floating for 2 years. NOW, April, 2004, the project took a leap with the Pipe Dream show. The floating objects on the new pages are tennis balls from the Citizen School Ball Pipe (At the bottom are a sampling of both virtual and real. Scroll down)   WINDOWS-The Transparent Flower Show, 2001 http://www.valweb.org/windows/flowers.htm
"The Transparent Flower Show"..a visual experiment in working and playing together. Basically, it is a transparent / translucent, photocopied images show with a floral theme. Scanned flowers, painted flowers, e mailed, multiplied, reduced, enlarged, superimposed, floral in feeling! Abstracts...patterns created with all the incoming images, combining them, coming together from all over the country. For the month of May, the show developed and filled a one hundred foot glass wall at The Old Bridge Public Library. To show simultaneously in two places, we cloned the imagery and took half to Newark, University of Medicine and Dentistry and half to the Old Bridge Library. Multiply! Add! Divide! After that it moved to the South River Library where a piece was created by a group of young people and we framed them all in a hoola hoop. Then the show moved to the Metuchen Public Library for another month. Then on to the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Piscataway, NJ. Next it went to the Cork Gallery, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, NY. All the while, the show was posted to the internet so all the participants can follow it along. Phillip T. Baker, the Rock & Roll artist, worked all night and then went to Cambridge School in Kendall Park, NJ and worked some more. This piece was created by 19 little children in the Head Start program, 3 and 4 yr olds, and measures about 48" across and is done on transparent, heavy vinyl. Using non-toxic paints, the children took turns by Phillip's side squishing their little fingers into the brightly colored paint and then creating an impression on the vinyl surface. By noon we had achieved the effect seen here. Within a few days the photos were on the web site.   As the children slowly moved around concentrically, artist Judy Wray followed with a heat gun drying the paint to prevent smearing. At another table, children were coloring fish for the "Traveling Magnetic Show" which moves around towns on the fire engine red Val VAN, the transportation for the Visual Arts League which doubles rolling road show. The finished piece joined the "Flower Show" January 2001 at  the Cork Gallery, downstairs from Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York.  The children's flower piece is in the collection of work hanging at the South Brunswick Library in the children's room and it is featured in "The Book of Hope", by Icelandic Poet, Birgitta Jonsdottir. (The Dalai Lama and Lawrence Ferlenghetti are in the same book.) The Internet was used throughout the project to teach many things all at once and add mileage to what was a few hours experience.
"The Great Grape House", by Robert Rakita, Union, NJ   Can we bring great art into   our communities as   opposed to budget art?   Art feeds us -   what will we serve up as a community?   This mural has not happened, not yet!   Art in Our Communities, 2004 http://www.valweb.org/NewsLetter/muralstodiefor.htm The Dream Precedes the Act. We are the dream weavers.
VAL - 1st DIGITAL SHOW-2000 http://www.valweb.org/lincoln2000/digital.htm                     David Camp, Wisconsin                Christine Tyler, New York   The New Brunswick Food show, 2002 http://www.valweb.org/new_brunswick_city_market.htm As a tangent to a real one day show of art & food sampling in local restaurants, we began an Internet Food show of our own. ( A few tidbits ) Dian Sirken, Freehold, NJ Lica's Freezer, Ansgard, Thomson               TOWN CLEANERS Internet Experimental Project, 2004                    http://www.valweb.org/New_Bruns/sunrise.htm   Town Cleaners, been around forever. The first design to come in. Ansgard Thomson, Alberta, Canada. On these web pages began an Internet project using the boarded up windows of vacant buildings (or partially vacant), experimenting with digital artists from around the world.  I would like to get people thinking  creatively about ways to use negative space in positive ways, bringing art out onto the street, creating an exciting interchange using digital art which can easily involve high school seniors in computer art programs with digital artists from around the world. Kind of a low budget, world school using negative space in a positive way. Together we can impart integrity to a world which is so divided by specialists, nobody having the scope of view or time to step back and create in a holistic way. Artists of all kinds function as roving free radicals knitting good things together for its own sake. Shankar Barua, New Delhi, India Robert Rakita, Union, NJ                            A Possibility:  Art is Food Virtual Pillar Show, 2004                      http://www.valweb.org/AP/artisfooditfeedsyou.htm Another Project Begins-This is one small portions of the front of a local supermarket in any town, our world. (Happens to be in my town!) The pillars are approx. 11' high and 58" around. We are beginning a virtual food related show on these pillars, as it is a SUPER-market! This is a take off on the Pipe Dreams show. We post designs coming in and add a link back to the artist sending. Designs accepted, we will attempt to make the virtual materialize via the same idea we used with the digital designs sent for the Pipe Dreams show.   The 2nd VAL Sponsored Digital show which is now a permanent installation at the University of Medicine and Dentistry-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ   Poster design by Ansgard Thomson, Alberta, Ca. Renata Spiazzi, La Jolla, Ca. David Zeines, New York Chuck Ferris, San Rafael, Ca.     "Headeye" Randy Roberts, Lisbon, Iowa Dale Copeland, Mt. Taranaki, New Zealand   Ed Fillmore, Rahway, NJ Judy Wray, Jill Ferguson, David Camp, Sheila Barrera & Doug the Mortician @ UMDNJ Dojoro, North Port, NY Renata Spiazzi, La Jolla, Ca. Jill Ferguson, Hatfield, Pa. Warren Furman, Montrose, Pa. Miriam Lozado-Jarvis, New Mexico Michael Huffman, "In Progress", Mn. Michelle Anderson, "In Progress" Mn. Mina Blyly-Strauss, "In Progress", Mn. Regina Mitchell, "In Progress" Mn. David Bornoff, Hollywood, Ca. Ansgard Thomson, Alberta, Ca. Don Archer, Brooklyn, NY   Susan Holland, Washington State Nancy Wood, Texas Kent Oberheu, Berkeley, Ca. Ursula Freer, New Mexico Barbara Patera, Washington State TOGO, New York Vicky Culver, Howell Twp. NJ Jay Zimmerman, Moors, Indiana

"Scream", Bronze, 12" X 8" X 5", 1987 ( The bronze period ! ) When I worked at the Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture, State of the Art foundry in Mercerville, NJ, (1987-89), we were taught processes leading up to and including bronze casting. This was a formative experience, as a cast could be endless variations in addition to a perfect and identical caste. It was these variations that grabbed my attention. Working along side serious and gifted sculptors from around the world was an educational experience in many ways. We were all aware of the health risks and could see the effect that years or even months of working in an unhealthy environment had on each other. One of my most unforgettable experiences was when a sculptor whom I admired very much invited me to see a storage area where his bronzes were kept. We drove over to an enormous old warehouse. Artists had created studio space on all the floors. We went up the elevator and the door opened to an area of space maybe 3000 sq feet. In the dusty, dim lighting we stood there silently seeing the hulking ton sculptures under gray tarpaulins, tied down. In those wordless moments many things were said. I knew that each month the rent had to be paid for space like that. I knew the cost in money and labor to produce the sculptures. I knew the wonder of the sculptures themselves. I saw dinosaurs. Something going extinct.

"Tyeast's Piece-Flower Power" 1997 46" diameter, Photo-copied images of Tyeast's fingertips, framed in cast hydrosome.

This image is a composite poster showing "Tyeast's Piece" in the upper right corner, Tyeast herself, (center), and her friend Alex (lower left) along with a guest appearance from the shark and the turtle, and Chuck the puppy. (Almost forgot! that's me, Judy Wray, with the red hat.) All these creatures were involved in creating during the 10 years between bronze sculpture and producing "Tyeast's Piece" and others below. (The shark leaped off Ginny Wick's ocean mural, if you pull up " Plastique-the Ocean Show", you can see him again, where he is supposed to be, but he peels off and there is no stopping him now. He goes anywhere he wants). Chuck the puppy was around at the beginning when we made clay impressions of Tyeast and Alex fingerprints. When it came time to pour the plaster in the clay impressions, the mold sprouted several leaks. White fluid gushed out all over, and Chuck rushed in to lap it up. Tyeast saved the day by plugging leaks with one hand and fending off Chuck with the other. Now the turtle. The turtle has always been around, it seems. From the time my dad would drive down country roads, bringing turtles home, over and over again, in all shapes and sizes. The turtle is a symbol and a friend, of steadfast persistence, showing up everywhere, even on doorsteps in far away places. Now, on the side of our home, we call "The Art Yard" is the Giant Tortoise" The Tortoise (The original design by Little Bob Duncan reproduced by Mark Nerys (16), Somerset, NJ

"Floating", 1992 56" diameter, Styrofoam, velvet satin, plaster of Paris and Crayola crayons. "Floating" was a piece created in reverse logic, using negative space. The problem was digging out the 3-D shadow of the fish images, then pouring in a solid to catch the ghost of the shape. The rest of the forms grew up around them. Styrofoam puzzle pieces.

 

Frozen waves, covered in satin and velvets. The fish were cast in plaster and slathered with melted crayon. It was light weight, except for the fish. The whole thing was beautiful, but highly breakable, and so the next piece was created to be a more durable variation of a floating fish theme. It weighs a ton!

"Floating (Variation 2)", 1993

Four kinds of Exotic Wood, Imported from Venezuela, Cast Bronze

This piece sat around in closets and spare rooms for a long time. It is so ominously heavy, it is uncomfortable to stand next to! Floating from a far, falling up close! But you don't take it anywhere. The easiest place to send it, is into cyberspace, on this web page, where I have no trouble sending it anywhere, and the real piece can sit safely in my living room.

"Fisher of Men", 1993
Judith Wray and Phyllis Castells

Terracotta, Raku Glazed, Lead Fishing Weights,
bronze, hay baling hook. 6' X 2' X 2'

The fish was produced as a result of a class assignment to work with a partner

 creating a piece with many parts.

When we were done, we were faced with mutual ownership.

All along we had to contend with our differences and afterwards too.

What developed was a kind of birth, a brain child born of us both.

What now? The project created a dilemma of ownership.

Something was "born" in that sculpture that neither of us recognized as our own.

We looked in wonder. The sum of the parts was more than a simple count of pieces.

 

The fish hangs by its head from a hay baling hook. It has a spine of large three-pronged fish hooks.

It goes together on the same principle as a Christmas tree. Each scale or group of scales going on in clusters or individually. The head crowns it all. It is a fish kit. It could come in a box, and be different every time it is assembled. The clay scales are raku fired. Raku is an ancient Japanese method of glazing. Each clay piece is heated to a red hot state in a kiln.

The pieces are then removed with tongs and thrown into a pile of twigs and leaves (or sawdust) which bursts into flames. Quickly, an airtight lid is clamped down. Flames consume the oxygen and create a vacuum. Minerals from within the clay are drawn to the surface of the clay where they mix with the chemicals  in the applied raku glaze. Instantly, a chemical reaction begins to take place and crimsons and coppers and turquoise and iridescent appear, depending on the minerals present and glaze used and timing and heat and oxygen. There are a lot of variables, which produce an infinite variety of results.