Judith Ernst

Originally from the Northwestern part of the U.S., I was born in Seattle Washington. I've written and illustrated books and had my own publishing company. Now my medium of choice is ceramics. The ceramic form is a three-dimensional canvas upon which I can experiment with some of the same imagery found in my illuminated books.

Some of my design motifs draw explicitly from pages in my books and like my book illustration, my ceramic work features images from the natural world and is also clearly influenced, though not exclusively, by traditional arts from India and Pakistan (where I've lived), as well as Persia and the Far East. I've experimented with various surface techniques in ceramics, most notably carving on a leather-hard surface, as well as multiple glazing with resist designs, incised slip designs, and repeating designs in relief both applied and subtracted. My pieces are generally fairly large and labor intensive, mostly on stoneware with its possibilities for rich colors and textures, and are one-of-a-kind pieces. I'm especially intrigued by the metaphysical notions inherent in the pot form itself, with the suggestion of infinity in its inside/outside, becoming metaphorically both the Water of Life and the Infinite O...

EDUCATION:

Stanford University, B.A. 1971

Courses in Scientific Illustration (Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology); Illustration (Mt. San Antonio Community College, Pomona, California); Ceramics (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)

PUBLICATIONS:

The Problem of Islamic Art, in Muslim Networks: From Hajj to Hip-Hop, ed. miriam cooke and Bruce B. Lawrence, Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks Series (University of North Carolina Press, 2005.)

The Song of Songs: Erotic Love Poetry. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2003.
For this work I edited the text of the Song of Songs from the Bible, illustrated the text with 12 miniature-like gouache illuminations inspired by Indian genres of painting, and wrote an artists commentary on the text.

The Golden Goose King: A Tale Told by the Buddha. Parvardigar Press, 1995.
This is a traditional Buddhist story that I retold and illustrated in a style reminiscent of early Buddhist painting and sculpture in India.

EXHIBITIONS:

A Well of Living Waters, Ceramic piece exhibited in the Resource Center for Women & Ministry in the Souths art exhibition, Art and the Feminine Divine (juried), Durham, NC, April 21-May 14, 2006.

11th Annual Orang...