Biography

Photographic artist Judith Monroe creates mixed media photographs, employing both traditional and alternative photographic processes to create vibrant one-of-a-kind images. Judith’s unique creative process has been featured in both local and national media. Her work can be found in art galleries, select retail outlets and has been popular at the Crocker Art Museum’s annual art auction as well as at numerous art festivals. Her photographs are included in public and private collections throughout the U.S.

Judith was born and raised in Northern California and attended the California State University at Sacramento. She began as a Journalism major, and soon fell in love with photography, eventually taking every photo class offered. Judith yearned for the colors she remembered and felt, not the colors reproduced by film and photographic papers. To fulfill her vision, she embarked on a journey of independent study, exploring the art of hand coloring. She began working as an assistant to a commercial photographer and completed her bachelor’s degree in 1987.

Over the next several years, her husband's career as an Army pilot led Judith as far around the world as Germany and eventually back home again to Northern California. In 1996, as the mother of two toddlers, Judith came back to photography as a working artist. In 2001 she began sharing her art with students through arts education programs in local schools, museums and other organizations. Judith is constantly expanding her knowledge and experimenting with various media and alternative processes to communicate her own personal vision.

Artist's Statement

I am constantly looking around, trying to see new things in the landscape that surrounds me. I take the time to get away and immerse myself in the moment; the best places I’ve found for that is in quiet, natural surroundings. Sometimes I can manage in my own backyard, or in a park, but other times I’m drawn farther out, where I can wander and lose myself. I often sit and journal as part of my creative process, which helps me become more observant and see with new eyes. Getting out with my camera and journal is when I feel most complete and at peace, in harmony with God and creation. Seeing and presenting the world with a new perspective is what art is all about, and for me this runs on a spiritual level as well.

I began journaling some time ago, not realizing where the path I was taking would lead, nor indeed, particularly interested in where I was going. Even now, it is not so much about where I go as it is about how I get there and what I do along the way. My goal is to become more aware of the world that I live in, to be able to fully appreciate it and the God who created it, and then to be able to share some part of that with others. Throughout my creative process, I have limited control, so the environment and the materials dictate the final work nearly as much as I do. I find that this reflects my life - so much that happens is out of my control and it is up to me to make the most with what God has given me.

Through my work, I invite viewers to reconsider modern priorities and return to a simpler life. My images are reminders of our relationships to nature. Beginning as black and white photographs, then colored, they symbolize the blending of the natural with the supernatural, reminding us that we are more than the bodies we inhabit and inviting us to examine our spiritual world, as well as our physical world.

Judith Monroe