We recently connected with Judith Kruger and have shared our conversation below.

Judith, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I feel as though it’s difficult to break down my projects as being separate. My art-life has been like a pot of soup, each ingredient adding to the final recipe and the recipe always being slightly altered or seasoned, yet evident as the same pot of soup or one big ongoing project. After receiving my BFA in illustration in the 70s, I launched my own design firm in the Chicago area, licensing my illustrations and product designs to manufacturers and retailers. I had the privilege of working in factories all over the world, overseeing the translation of my artwork in glass, metal, ceramics, wood, plastic, textiles, and paper. Looking at old photos, it’s ironic how I was creating stone-like, geometric textures, even back then. See photo of me below in front of my textile design from 1994.

My backstory most certainly informs my projects today. For 30+ years I created first, then travelled to faraway lands to collaborate with artisans. Now, for the past 20+ years, I globally source and forage for natural matter/pigments for self-manufactured art materials, pushing the boundaries of historic processes that are deeply rooted in other cultures. To me, it’s all the same process: meaningful cross-cultural collaborations, just in reverse. Now, I am the end-maker with no client in mind, no one to please, but myself. I exercise a similar “what-if”, experimental mentality in the studio, as I did in factories, pushing materials to their limits to convey an alchemic, visual interpretation of the frailty and resilience of nature-human nature and environmental nature. We need that today.

I am as much an Alchemist, explorer, and researcher as Artist.

Sustaining a non-toxic studio practice, with methods and materials that have existed in ancient cultures for thousands of years, derived from the environment itself, is my cathartic place to manifest hope for a renewed future that values the importance of mindfulness, well-being, and planet care.

My work is included in exhibitions and permanent collections relating to environmental issues. People want to live with it. It has the ability to communicate and heal.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

In the early 2000,s I travelled briefly to Kyoto, Japan and walked into a gallery featuring Nihonga, Japanese mineral pigment painting. After being struck and puzzled by the luminosity and glistening qualities of the work’s surface, the gallerist arranged my visit to Saiundo Fujimoto’s pigment shop. Most people don’t realize that the colors of the iconic Asian screens and scrolls were painted with crushed semi-precious stones like malachite and azurite as well as ochres, oyster shells, insect secretions and soot ink. It was at that moment when I was lured towards my destiny, not really realizing that this day would entangle my life with decades of interesting journeys, relationships, failures, and successes to last more than a lifetime. I had collected rocks and minerals since I was a child. Was this path set long before this day?

For lack of boring you with a novel, fast forward to today, after years of research, travel, toiling, and an MFA in painting, while in my 50s, I now have a serious, sustainable studio practice, while supporting other artists in their work development, through teaching, mentoring and grant writing. Perhaps this history ripened my ability to scrutinize how and with what things are made of, so I’m kind of known to my peers as a material guru who pushes the theory of cause and effect. In other words, having a mantra of “if I do this, it will look like that”, proves to be quite helpful in the development of experimental, especially abstract, and or material driven artwork.

An obsession with tedious, alchemic processes drives my desire to create paintings, as objects that emulate nature on a particle level, linking perception with emotion. The work is meant to be experienced. When I am in the studio, concocting and building the layers of a work, all else vanishes. If I can impact how others see and make them look closer and feel deeper, then I’ve been successful. After all, Mother Nature gave us our original frame of reference for beauty. Beauty can be defined in so many ways. I think the pandemic gave us permission to focus on beauty. We deserve it.
Mine is a longing for gritty beauty: one that only suggests pictorial imagery, summoning the infinite.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Yes. Do what you love. Follow your heart and the people and places, that matter to you, will follow. I can’t tell you how many like-minded, nature worshippers, healers, environmental activists, ecofeminists, matter-obsessed, special people I now have in my circle of friends and peers. It’s a gift.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

A very small percentage of grant funding is delegated for individual artists. We Artists need more funding for the ongoing development of our work. We provide meaningful human experiences that make a difference: facing big issues that ultimately increase intellectual and emotional well-being for everyone.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.judithkruger.com
• Instagram: @judithkrugerstudio
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/judith.kruger.3
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judith-kruger-15a9072/

Image Credits
Robert Thomas Joy Bush