Sisters Joyce Wallace Scott and Judith Scott

Learning of Judith Scott
by Tim “Birch” Schooler

Judith Scott, deceased, endured tragedy in her life, and her works of texture, color, and form attest to perception and intuition of her vision. They are multicolored treasures. Since the time when she was born with her fraternal twin sister, Judith Scott had Down’s syndrome. Judith could not hear and did not learn to speak. Before her sister, Joyce Wallace Scott, gained custody, she had lived in an institution for more than thirty years.

Her artworks are ingenious and, often, resplendent works of textile and found objects. Perhaps the gift of her isolation from discourse was her breathtaking ingenuity with colors and textures and found objects.

I partly learned of Scott’s artwork during Ben’s 3-D Materials class through Path with Art.

I will have the biography titled Entwined by Joyce Scott delivered to my home, and I will learn about the tragic separation of the twins. I hope to then read about how Judith Scott overcame her years of isolation, gradually, with Creative Growth, an organization in Oakland, California.

The statement about her at the website of the Edlin Gallery indicates the power of Judith Scott. Amazing that is, since Judith, a vulnerable person, and her work which she discovered and produced became celebrated and treasured.