Artist Statement

I am open to learning from anyone, enjoy using a various media and sources, and have produced books, free-flow poetry, montages/collages,  woodcuts, and traditional work such as beaded jewelry and religious icons. I’m more interested in the process than the product, and tend to work where I have the most to learn. I work in fits and starts, coming back to the work with new insights on how I want to proceed.

Nothing is ever wasted—all the teachers, fellow artists, gallery wanderings, travel, exposure to other art forms,  mistakes and dead ends,—it all ends up at the end of a paintbrush or keystroke.

Many of my paintings are taken from my travel photos, although I also work from black and white family photos, the Oklahoma landscape, and my imagination, but time changes how I see and manipulate these sources.  Although I can’t escape the constraints of my personal journey,  I believe art breaks down the barriers that appear to separate us. As such, it is an instrument for social change and personal redemption.

-Bio-

 Judith Briggs Coker (b. 1939), originally from Rutland, Vermont, attended Boston University, Oklahoma City University, and The University of Oklahoma, receiving degrees in English, Humanities, and 20th Century American Literature and Literary Criticism. She has studied with various teachers in different art forms, most recently with Carol Armstrong of Norman, Oklahoma.

Coker has lived in Norman since the early 1980s, spending some time in Asia teaching as well, but traveling to new places and participating in the Norman community remain her greatest inspirations. Her writing and teaching career has been augmented by working in various art media, most recently acrylic, monoprint, and woodcut. Guam and Other Islands: A Miscellany combines multiple short writings in differing formats with woodcut illustrations. Her latest interest is turning her materials toward more abstract composition, often tinged with social comment. Love of family, travel, and gardening enriches her life.