My paintings and drawings attempt to create new language for deeply held intuitions and ideas. By using natural forms and environments in an iconic or metaphorical way, I work to make visual the essential mysteries of life forces and natural law.

Many of my paintings can be called "metaphorical landscapes." A cedar tree, or a shape that has evolved from it, is often central to my paintings. The tree becomes a symbol, not only of connection between earth, air and water, of conception, growth and decay, but of the sacredness of the individual, the holiness of life, and the will to perfection.

For me, the process of art is the discovery of beauty, and beauty is that moment or idea or object that is a complete and inevitable manifestation of a true thing. I believe there are "small beauties" and very overwhelming ones. They are hints, or epiphanies, depending on degree, that bring us closer to understanding our place in the order of things.

~Judith Bair