The Inspiration of Judith Brust
By Lucretia Voigt Independent Arts Writer

When Judith Brust was at Penn State majoring in education, she did not see her future as being an artist following in the footsteps of Hercules Seghers, William Blake and Paul Klee, but more likely involved in the creation of refrigerator masterpieces and beginning figure drawing. She graduated and was accredited to teach art to grades kindergarten through 12. Intent on starting her own family with her new husband, Brust decided instead to change the landscape of her life. "I chose not to [teach in the schools] because found that I couldn't do it all," she explained when asked about the path that led to her artistic pursuit, a realization that so many mothers reach when faced with a home, a husband, children and a career. "I was fortunate that my husband was able to support us, and I didn't have to do it all. So instead of teaching in the schools, I taught in my studio and I taught the neighborhood children how to draw. I love children, and wanted to get my own started."

Brust raised her family, summered on Nantucket, introduced a few fortunate children to the world of artistic expression, and lived her life. With her children grown she was free to once again change the view from the window of her soul and her inspiration. "I had done watercolor prior to that, and when I was 50 I went back to graduate school," she explained. "I did a Master of Arts in sculpture and a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture and printing during seven years of intense study at State University of New York at Albany. Prior to that was doing very romantic landscapes, impressions of Nantucket, never realism, but a rice paper sculptural technique. I was very successful with it. What happened was I grew out of it, and then that's when I went back to graduate school."

Brust found the outlet for her inspiration in a technique known as monoprint, a mixed media approach to art that has been used for centuries. The informational Web site www.monoprints.com explains that the appeal of monoprints "lies in the unique translucency that creates a quality of light very different from a painting on paper or a print, and the beauty of this media is also in its spontaneity and its combination of printmaking, painting and drawing mediums." Brust uses "printing ink and lithograph ink, and mix them to make them useful to me, as well as all kind of textures that work for me." She was inspired by her inner psychological journeys and the path of life. About Brust's monoprints, art historian Mary Buchan wrote, "Lyrical in feeling and heroic in scale, they capture in their veils of color the layers of the artist's interests and emotions. They invite the viewer to enter into her world, where she explores concepts of religion, ritual and generational passage."

Inspiration for Brust comes in all spaces and sizes, from the grandiosity of the sunrise to the diminutiveness of a pebble. "I don't paint every day," explained Brust when asked about her process. "I work all the time, but I don't print all the time. When I'm traveling, I draw. The printing is done in a large block of time. Often times I'll go six months. But then once I start, I print 25, 30 pieces as long as I can stand up at the press. And then I rest after that. I think about it all the time, so that the art work is in my mind and when finally go down to the press I'm able to put it out more clearly."

Brust's pieces are abstract in design, primal in their intensity. "I work with a theme of life cycles, and course it's a very broad based thing," said Brust. "The last pieces I've done are about journeys, and they're topographical, probably because I'm in airplanes a lot of the time! Basically life cycle is a universal topic that

can use to express a lot of what my life is about and yet pertains in some way to everybody's life. I don't strive to have one meaning to my work. I think it's more interesting when you can look at a piece of art and find different meanings, layers of meanings. encourage people to look at it that way. And I'm excited when they can look at it and come to it from their own place, where they are in their life."

Three years ago that journey led Brust to open Gallery Blue on Old South Wharf, a venture she had begun in Rochester in 2002, then moved to Nantucket in 2004. "I didn't exhibit here for many, many years because I knew the type of work I was doing wouldn't be accepted," she acknowledged. "The year before we retired, I tried to think of a gallery my work might fit, and I couldn't think of one. I show at the Artist's Association, but it doesn't really fit there either, even though the Artist's Association is doing a great job trying to meld some contemporary artists into their exhibits. That's when I opened the little gallery on South Wharf. It was many wonderful things that sort happened for me without really looking for them. was quite nice." As a full-time Nantucket resident, Brust's life now influenced by the sunset over Madaket and the beauty of the ocean. Her inspiration, like her life, constantly changing. "I expect that I will grow here probably a little differently than when I was off the island," she contemplated when asked about the path her work was currently taking. "It will be interesting see how it affects me, living here all the time. We travel probably half the time, but it will be interesting. I'm excited about it because I'm ready for a change, ready for growth. I've been doing this work for 11 years that I've been exhibiting. I'm ready. I think it happens sort

of naturally." I