JUDY TODD, PhD
Like many artists, Judy Todd began drawing and painting at a very early age, but she set art aside for career and motherhood until she retired from teaching psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills, in 2004. Since then her paintings have won awards in local, national, and international art shows. She is a signature member of Watercolor West, and she has served as a juror, taught workshops, exhibited in local galleries, and appeared in art publications. As a painter, she works primarily in watercolor, although she uses it in nontraditional ways, often mixed with other media and materials. The theme of her work is appreciation of our brief time in this amazing world at a time of disruptions due to climate change.
Fractured
(Mixed media on paper, 15" High x 15" Wide)
The context of climate change, from pandemics to environmental destruction, influences my emotional responses to my surroundings and the physical world. Since the American Psychological Association defined eco-anxiety 5 years ago, much research has been conducted and many articles have been written about it. Many people are experiencing anxiety, fear, depression, and grief as a result of human-induced climate change. As an artist I express and deal with such feelings both as a way to cope with them and to share the issue with viewers.
Through abstract landscapes painted intuitively with mixed media, I use color and symbols to convey my subjective reactions to the objective calamity of climate change. Each mark on paper is a choice that has consequences that lead to other choices, to create a painting, just as our choices in how to live have had consequences for our future world.
People need witnesses. We need people with us when facing a hard reality. Individual and group therapy rely on this fact. As I experience grief and fear when observing the worsening environment, from ever fewer birds and butterflies to increasing pollution and pandemics, painting helps me process these feelings. I hope the resulting art can be similarly helpful to viewers, even if only as a bit of company while we bear witness to these changes.