San Fran Voice

Judy Gittelsohn is a Bay Area artist who does color studies of simple objects using acrylics on canvas to convey her artistic messages.  She attended the San Francisco Art Institute from 1978-79 and worked as an artist in the city for over twenty years.  In 1998, she moved to nearby Palo Alto, but San Francisco continues to see her work with exhibits in locations ranging from Bank of America to SFMoMA’s Artists Gallery.

Not only is Judy an impressive artist in her own right, but she is also an artist who gives back to the community around her.  She has just established Art For Well Beings (AFWB), an arts center which provides creative opportunities to groups including at-risk youth and the developmentally disabled.  Through art classes, gallery exhibitions and other projects, AFWB makes the world of art more accessible to the community.  Learn more about AFWB here – or attend the opening celebrations on May 6^th!!

What can you tell us about the basics of your artwork?

In the studio, I work on representation and contact points between a figure and its setting.  The edges are of utmost importance to me; where interaction occurs – the object and the sky, for example – and how paint can lead us into and out of a figure.  I work in Golden Acrylic paint; I am a working artist for Golden and find the medium amazing.

What projects are you working on now?  What art goals do you have for yourself?

I have just opened ART FOR WELL BEINGS.  This is an art center geared towards people with developmental disabilities, at risk youth and people recovering from illness or injury. I focus on methods of teaching that encourage people to set aside their concerns of representation and work on application of paint, creating group images.  The individual has an area that he or she fills in and the panels are connected together after being painted to create a final painting.

My goals for the center are to get it up and running, to create a few kits with curriculum to send to other centers/schools/jails and then to use that as a starting point for continued growth.  (Note: Learn more about AFWB here.)

As far as my individual painting goals, I am working on a series of mountains and figures and want to complete this and then see where I go.  Art is a continually changing process.

Do you have any current / upcoming shows?

My work is on display at 1212 Gallery in Burlingame, Lion and Compass in Sunnyvale, 4 Bank of America’s in the San Jose area, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery and Hotel des Arts in SF.

How does the city inspire or affect your artwork?

Living in Silicon Valley, the work I do is set at the crazy pace of my community.  I think that I struggle to keep up – produce, attain, and drive.  I feel interrupt driven a lot.  Settling down to paint takes a lot of focus and I tend to paint between things.  My constant hope is to find the attention necessary to focus more deeply on my painting.

Do you have a favorite gallery in San Francisco?

My favorite galleries in SF are Charles Campbell, Hackett Freedman, and Jack Fischer Gallery.

How much networking do you do with other local artists?  What types of art events do you enjoy?

I enjoy meeting people. I am busy working and have a family so my socializing is limited to friends and family but I do go to local art events and enjoy them.  

What advice do you have for emerging artists?

Find artists that you like, either on the internet or in magazines, and follow their work.  Research subjects that intrigue you and then paint/create them. This is what is moving for me personally and then it turns around and moves other people.

Judy Gittelsohn can be contacted via email at me@judyg.com with questions about her work and the work of AFWB.