Judy Robkin

Atlanta, GA | Exhibiting Since 2016

I have been working in clay for the last 20 years, beginning with the wheel but quickly moving to handbuilding. I love the freedom and unlimited possibilities of non-functional pieces and am drawn to forms which express something unexpected.  My hand-built clay “Ladies” were originally inspired by an old, wrinkled street vendor in Croatia who was tickled when my husband told her she was beautiful. The memory of her girlish smile inspired my first pieces in this series.

Revealing the personality that is hidden under the headdress or behind the shawl, I attempt to unearth the simple yet elegant woman emerging from the clay. Just as our lives are textured by time and experience, layered through grief, joy, love and fear and colored by world events and personal experience, so too are my “Ladies” – textured, layered and colored.  I use a range of stains, glazes, underglazes, and oxides through multiple firings to build up the color and enhance the marks and textures embedded in the clay. I rarely start a piece with a specific face in mind. For me, the excitement begins as I see the personality emerge from the clay and culminates when the viewer identifies with an individual “lady.”