Judith Scott and Outsider Art

Early on in our Criticism Class I mentioned "outsider art" as being difficult to criticize - without really knowing all that much about it, I knew that art created by untrained individuals would necessarily incite different sorts of criticism than art created within the established structures of society. I've since done a bit more research, and discovered that I genuinely like the weirdness of these outsider artists.

There's something really compelling about just feeling the urge to make something, an urge so strong you would just MAKE, regardless of convention. And I'm not alone: the re-purposing of ordinary objects that's seen in many outsider's work was adopted into the mainstream by modernists like Marcel Duchamp. Even Picasso drew inspiration from the untrained eyes of children for his work.  The involvement of these highly influential and controversial artists with the "domestication" of outsider art only makes it more intriguing.  But I digress! Let's move on to what I really want to talk about: Judith Scott.

Judith Scott and her fraternal twin Joyce were born in Columbus, Ohio in May 1943. Judith was born with Down-Syndrome, and a bout of Scarlet fever as an infant left her deafened. Thus, when it came time for the girls to attend school, Judith was considered "profoundly retarded" and found to be ineducable. On the advice of medical and religious counsel, Judith's parents had her institutionalized at the age of 7. She would spend the next 35 years of her life as a ward of the State of Ohio, in various institutions for the disabled.

In 1986, the adult Joyce found Judith and took her to live with her family in California, against the advice of her mother. Judith was able to enroll in adult education classes at the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland. After almost two years of exhibiting little interest in painting or drawing, Judith observed a demonstration of fiber art by visiting artist Sylvia Seventy, and soon after began creating her own unique body of work.

Most of Judith's works are composed of found objects wrapped in yarn or other cords. She chose all her own materials, and in 18 years of work never repeated a color scheme or shape. The most common themes within her work are pairs, most likely relating to her life as a twin, and poles, which sometimes rise out of magnificent colorful lumps.

Her figures have been compared to cocoons or body parts. I find that their frenetic use of color recalls the static of a television screen, while the yarn that covers most of the composition gives an impression of softness to shapes that may otherwise seem rough and unfriendly.

Theres is a definite vision in Judith's diverse sculptural work. Each shape contains an embedded object which Judith found to be of some significance. The wrapping of these objects till they are invisible seems almost shamanistic, ritualized. The big, colorful forms that were created in this process may be impressions of isolation, or armor, or simply change. Maybe they are an expression of the artists desire to keep things safe, or contained.

Judith was never able to explain her work, but it's mystery only adds to it's expressive power.