Judith Joseph

I am a painter and calligrapher, and I live in the Chicago area. I specialize in the ketubah (illustrated/decorated Jewish marriage contract.) I have made hundreds of hand-written ketubahs and other calligraphic works as commissions. I also exhibit my paintings, and I'm a published illustrator. My preferred media for painting are egg tempera, watercolor and acrylic. I teach painting and calligraphy at the Chicago Botanic Garden and the Art Center, Highland Park, Illinois.
I learned to paint on silk from Linny Freeman, one of my colleagues at the Art Center. She is a talented artist and instructor, and I took her class several times, learning batik, gutta, and straight painting techniques. I'm not a fan of gutta; the gestural quality of my painted line is an important feature in my work, and I find the gutta line to be too uniform for my expression. I use Jacquard No-Flow primer to prep the silk so I can paint directly (as in my Demeter/Persephone shawl.) I also found that if I paint directly on the unprepared silk, using alcohol as a diffuser, after it dries I can paint again and get a pretty crisp line (as in my Ocean Wave scarf). I use Sennelier Tinfix Design silk dyes. The colors are very brilliant, which is important to me.
My ketubahs are a form of illuminated manuscripts, an illustrated scribal tradition that includes gold leaf, which I love to do. In silk, I bring the element of metallic sparkle to my work with Jacquard Lumiere metallic fabric paints. They offer a gorgeous array of colors, and also can be mixed for custom colors.
In addition to the ketubah, another Jewish ritual object associated with weddings is the huppah, the traditional canopy, under which couples are married. I was commissioned to make one, and since it was my first try, I made two, just to be safe. They both came out well; the client got theirs, and I gave the other one to my synagogue (Congregation Hakafa) for use by marrying couples. I only ask that they make a charitable contribution of their choice when they borrow it. It has been used several times.

Artistically, I am inspired by nature, calligraphic forms and narrative story-telling. Silk painting drew me because of the brilliant, stained-glass luminosity of the colors. I also love wearing the silk scarves-- I find that they permit me to fine-tune my temperature comfort level in all climates, and they add such a personal and colorful flair to my otherwise pretty boring artist's uniform of mostly black clothing.