Judi
Gorski is a long time
San Francisco
resident who has lived at Ocean Beach since 1978. A native New
Yorker who
grew up
spending summers on Long Island at the beaches near the Hamptons,
she studied art at several Florida universities before moving west
to study at San Francisco Art Institute, the Academy of Art, and San
Francisco State University.
After
graduating as a painting major and a B.A. in Art in hand, she opened
JAG's Art Studio in her 3-story Ocean Beach home with an incredible
view of the surf at Taraval and 48th. She does not surf. Judy
primarily does original fine art paintings and limited edition
giclee prints, as well as commissioned work.
ABOUT HER WORK:
“I’m
one of those people, making paintings from the heart about the place
where I love to be living…I’m presently caught up in creating
paintings about surfers and the life that gathers around the beach.
I feel connected to the people I see who stop to witness the power
and calmness of the ocean or the beauty of the sky meeting the
horizon as they sit on the crumbling concrete sea wall.
Surfers are passionate about surfing, and that passion is
contagious. I have developed a deep respect for surfers and their
willingness to go through all that they do to master this skill and
to grow to love it.
To pay my
personal tribute to the beauty of the human form engaged in some of
the quiet, rarely memorialized, details of surfing, I am painting
Surfers and Beach Life, my current series, in acrylic in an almost
photo-realistic style. This demands great attention to small details,
where I use photographs as a guide for most of my paintings."
HOW OCEAN BEACH HAS CHANGED:
“Ocean Beach
has changed dramatically over the last 28 years. Back in the day,
we used to walk through a graffiti-covered tunnel to get to the
waves and sand, which was not fun and a bit intimidating. In
the mid 80s, the beach restoration project transformed the 3-mile
area from Sloat to the Cliff House into a beautiful area with
jogging paths, bicycle paths, sand dunes, and community gardens like
the one in front of Java Beach café. That all quickly turned Ocean
Beach from a scary biking gang-type scene into a more family
oriented place…”
INSPIRATION:
”Painters who have added to my inspiration and motivation include
Robert Bechtle, Anna Conti, E. Dale Erickson, David Hockney, and
Paul Pratchenko.”
View more of Judi's work at
www.jagsart.com.
Catch her work at
Wise Surfboards
and
Java Beach Cafe.
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