Courtesy of CMAC
“The Girl with the Purple Hair” © 2006 is an award-winning fiber piece by artist Judith Reilly.
Friday, April 1 at 5 p.m. — BRANDON — Compass Music and Arts Center hosts an exhibit featuring local fabric artist, Judith Reilly. Her retrospective will be on exhibit from April 1 to May 30.
We all start out pretty young. And it has been said that the child artist is the only true artist because they have an uncluttered path to their own intuitions. This perfect intuitive mind of a child has been a model that Judith Reilly has tried to follow throughout her life. “The Girl with the Purple Hair,” the title for one of the award-winning fiber artist’s transitional pieces, represents a side road, a turn she was impelled to take. This intuition (literally meaning “inner tutor”) has guided her on many such side trips along the way from beginning as a traditional quilt maker to becoming an independent, whimsical, and sometimes thought-provoking multi-media artist.
Flash forward and you will find the Brandon, Vt. artist in her studio creating representational, but not literal work; pieces which express both realistic and fantastic interpretations in a catawampus and quirky style.
Making and creating for 50 plus years, Reilly has discovered a great deal about herself, creativity and life in general. As she looks back, she sees her life in stories, chapters, lessons and side roads. To her, it’s not really about the art. “It is about the life that evolves and unfolds that then creates the art. The artwork is just the evidence that you have lived and listened to the intuitions and followed through. The ideas are always developing within us. Life is the muse.”
The exhibit at the Compass Music and Arts Center presents her work as she has seen it develop through each chapter and side road and as it relates to the “Twelve Life Lessons for Creativity” which evolved through reflection of her own artistic journey. An opening reception will be held on Friday, April 1 from 5 to 7:30 p.m.
Reilly’s work has been shown in national and international exhibitions as well as in government offices. Her quilts have been awarded in several competitions internationally and across the U.S., in addition to articles about the artist and images of her work having been published in books and magazines. She maintains a gallery in her home in Brandon where she sells original artwork, print reproductions, a delightful collection of accessories, and most recently, hand-hooked rugs she designs for the Chandler 4 Corners company of Manchester, Vt. Visit her website at www.judithreilly.com.
Hear Judith Reilly speak about her life and work at a gallery talk on Sunday, May 1 at 3 p.m.
Compass Music and Arts Center is located at Park Village, 333 Jones Drive, Brandon. Visit the website at www.cmacvt.org.
