JUDY BONDERMAN

ARTIST STATEMENT

“In 2020 our worlds narrowed due to COVID-19.  I had to reconsider how to communicate the feelings evoked by a certain location and culture — the sense of time and place or simply, the vibe.  Previously, I favored street photography and intimate portraits to convey my connection to foreign lands; my new lens is decidedly less representational.  

My initial projects, Acedia and Recalibrating, used abstract images to portray the emotions stemming from the restrictions and uncertainties of the pandemic.  The digital collages result from a combination of intentional decisions and chance effects.  An image might take days to complete, with the iterative processing of combining, blending, and adjusting becoming almost a meditative experience.  The unpredictability and serendipity of the creative exercise itself was well-suited to self-imposed lockdown and it continues to excite me.

My new work uses figurative abstraction or abstract fantasy to depict a place or event.  Rather than reproducing reality, I exaggerate, romanticize, and fantasize in my interpretations.  Although I’m tending towards greater abstraction, my composites retain recognizable imagery that I consider essential narrative elements.  

An ongoing project, Transitions, is based on walks in the Tregaron Conservancy, 13 acres of protected parkland in the heart of the city.   The theme is a homecoming, as we linger near the lily pond to be restored and re-centered alongside the aquatic plants, bullfrogs, goldfish, ducks and more than an occasional water snake.  Day after day, season after season, I return to rework, repeat, and transform what, for me, lies between reality and abstraction.  I am embracing nature like never before while also discovering a new sense of mystery.”

Judy's website