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Curator’s Statement - Curator Ludlow E. Bailey

Judy Sayfie is a fiercely independent artist who is determined to make a significant mark on the art world. She is by birth a gifted artist endowed with the ability to use color to enlighten the human mind and soul. Judy became aware of her talent for art at six years old and her parents were astute enough to encourage her interest. Judy later went on to earn an MFA from Wichita State University.

Her figurative and landscape renditions are seductive, soulful, enigmatic, bold and full of energy. Her work cannot be categorized with ease because she is a woman devoted to listening to her own vision and voice. In real time, she is up to speed with the age of globalization and information, but at the end of day, marches to the beat of her own drum. Judy is not really interested in playing the gallery or commercial game, but is really committed to her craft and the ideal of being an excellent artist. Over the last forty years, she has produced an outstanding body of works that ranges from figurative to abstract expressionism and from still lives to landscapes.

In some ways, it might be said that her work is a combination of Alex Katz, Gauguin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Frida Kahlo and Cindy Sherman. She speaks openly about the powerless status of the majority of women in the world. Like Frida Kalo, she is a colorful personality who has had some profound experience with relationships. She loves men, but refuses to be abused or be controlled by them. She adores painting and spends most of her time working out ideas to make manifest on canvas or with any medium that compliments her artistic vision. Judy is a lover of Kahlil Gibran and Bob Dylan. Many of her paintings are inspired by the music of Bob Dylan and the poetry of Kahlil Gibran.

In 1968, Judy moved to South Florida, got married and preceded to raise three outstanding boys. During her parenting stage, Judy continued to pursue her art practice, but was unable to devote the kind of time she desired. She credits art with really saving her life after having survived a very challenging marriage and the rigorous routine of raising three boys. Her art is driven by a passionate interest in women’s issue, the complexity of human relationships, sexuality, the environment, spirituality, music and poetry.

Her latest paintings create a visual interpretation of the relationship between the female gender and its connection to nature and the evolution of humanity. Her recent abstraction on towel explores supernatural ideas of quantum being, energy and the nature of reality.

Judy currently maintains her own studio in Hallandale, FL, and is actively engaged in the South Florida art community. Judy also believes that art can play a very critical role in the social, economic and political development of the South Florida Community.

Artist’s Statement

When I was 7 years old I really wanted to join my brother’s Tarzan Club. The initiation required new members to jump off the roof of the garage. Many of the neighborhood boys were hanging on ropes and swinging from the trees and hollering the sounds of Tarzan. And they were dressed only in short homemade loincloths. My older sister was already a member and naturally I had to keep up with her. So one day, the Tarzan club and I went up on the roof of the garage. They started to cheer me on as I was crouched looking down at the ground and trying to get up my nerve. I was scared to death. I jumped anyway and the club cheered. Now I was the youngest member. We all continued on to the Riverside park where I had to jog to keep up with them. But my ankle was hurting and hours later when I came home it was swollen.

Many years later I came to realize that I was a member again of some kind of Tarzan club when I moved to S. Florida in 1967. It was like a jungle and it wasn’t just the palm trees. It was crowded. The people in Florida were so different people than the ones I grew up with in Kansas. They seemed hardened and tough. In Florida at that time, there were drug wars, crime, and fraud. It was a struggle to get used to this new jungle. Then I decided to take a leap. But instead of climbing up to the roof of the garage, I went into the studio and I brought beauty to what I was experiencing. I didn’t just paint the colors I saw, I used the colors I felt. I wanted to create my own fantasy.