noreply@blogger.com (Judith Nakhnikian) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 21:59:00 +0000

Best Friends U-School Class of 1970 with ARFF Summer 2006

4' x 4' October 2007, courtesy of Nancy Saltzman

noreply@blogger.com (Judith Nakhnikian) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 06:41:00 +0000

Making art is an especially political act for women. Using our time in an internal thoughtful solitary way has always been difficult for women to justify. When we find time to think and work at our art, it is challenging to find an audience for it. Alice Neel said, "I have always believed that women should resent and refuse to accept all the gratuitous insults that men impose on them. The woman artist is especially vulnerable and could be robbed of her confidence."

I have always needed to produce art to make sense of my life. It is a struggle to find time to paint. Painting requires uninterrupted chunks of time that could easily be used up at my job or attending to the needs of my husband and three children.

My paintings have always been centered around expressionist portraiture.

The beauty of painting is that some mystery always remains. It is not necessary to give away anyone's secrets to paint what is true about them.

I wonder about my art, whether I can justify my concentration on the study of individual people and animals, beauty and joy in life and nature, during this time of war and conflict and the degradation of the earth. As Snoopy said, "artists are a dime-a-dozen." When I look at art in history I remember that there has always been a place for paintings which reflect what we strive to be and to love. Artists collectively address all of the great questions human beings pose, when individually we can only handle a bit of that task at a time.

I am always interested in doing more work on commission. Please e-mail me if you have any interest in seeing yourself or loved ones, including animals, in a small or large work.