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Judi Birnberg

Judi Birnberg

Tel/Fax: 818-990-5154

Email Judi Birnberg


I’m the one whose license plate says C♥LLAGE, although I suspect many people seeing it think I really enjoy my classes at the university but can’t spell.

 

In fact, I do love collage and always walk with my head down, my eyes sweeping the path before me for bits of detritus others might have discarded as junk. I once tore a wonderfully curled piece of billboard off a wall in Spain as my husband repeatedly despaired that I was going to be arrested; that trophy now lives in a collage in his office. All my scraps of paper, wood and metal ultimately find new life in my collages, works that also often incorporate watercolor and acrylic. 

 

I made my first collage in high school.  I vaguely recall assembling it very quickly and then forgetting about it until my teacher told me she had entered it into a citywide art competition in which the juror awarded me a blue ribbon and had the collage sent to New York City for the national level of competition.  The work came back without further decoration and was the last collage I did until about 15 years ago, when I took a Gerald Brommer workshop and was immediately and irrevocably possessed by the medium.

 

The risk-taking I exhibited in Spain is also reflected in my art:  I work spontaneously, putting down one element—it doesn’t matter which one— and letting that lead me to the next and the next and the next; if I don’t like something, I peel it off or cover it up.  I don’t want to know where I am going ahead of time; I love to be surprised and see where the elements of materials and creativity lead me.

 

As a literature major and former college English teacher, I should not be surprised when a work calls to me to incorporate words and letters.  They may not even mean anything; they may be in a language I don’t understand, and sometimes their form is all I want, but art and literature are both touchstones for me.

 

I am drawn to the irregular and imperfect, perhaps as a reflection of the human condition, perhaps just of my condition.  I love to vary my palette and try new approaches. You may think my works do not even appear to have been created by the same person. Some of you might even ask yourselves, what that indicates? Creativity?  Experimentation?  Schizophrenia?  You be the judge.

 

 

EDUCATION:  
M.A., English, University of California, Los Angeles

TESL Certificate, University of California, Los Angeles

B.A., English, University of California, Berkeley

 

MEMBERSHIP:  
COLLAGE ARTISTS OF AMERICA
(past President, past Exhibit Chair, current Newsletter Editor)

WOMEN PAINTERS WEST (current Newsletter Editor)

 

EXHIBITS/AWARDS:  
Innumerable local and national juried exhibitions,
including awards at San Diego International Watercolor Exhibition,
Brand Art Gallery "Works on Paper" exhibits.
Works in private and corporate collections.

 

 

Judi Birnberg17 Judi Birnberg18

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* None of the artworks may be copied or reproduced without the written permission of the Artist