Creative Art for Generations

Biography of Judy H. Taylor Judy was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1934 to Jim and Dolores Stermer. She was the younger of two girls. Mary was a child prodigy. She painted murals at the age of 7. Judy would not compete. She would have nothing to do with drawing or painting. She took a different path. The family moved to New Mexico. She graduated from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in 1957 with a Bachelor's Degree in Education and enlisted in the Air Force prior to attending Officer Candidates School and becoming the first female officer in the United States Air Force from New Mexico. She was then stationed at Walker Air Force Base in Roswell, NM. There she married David Hull. Later they moved to New Jersey. She is the mother of three children, two sons, Jim and Steve and a daughter, Cricket. In 1975 she and her family moved to Flat Rock, N.C. In spite of the years of prodding, Judy thought she was never going to be a painter. She was given the opportunity to help Mabel, an illiterate woman who had suffered a stroke and memory loss. In desperation to find the appropriate stimulus for her to recall words Judy drew sketches of her shoes, her dressing gown, and etc. on 3"X5" cards for Mabel. These drawings proved to be the turning point in her ability to communicate once again. But this act also changed Judy's life. She took one watercolor class and was hooked. She enrolled in another but the instructor got sick. After talking with the staff at Blue Ridge Technical College in Flat Rock, NC, Judy finished teaching the remainder of the class. This was the beginning of a career teaching painting. Since then she has taught in Hendersonville, Asheville, and Marion, N.C. as well as Anderson and Greenville, S.C. She has had 12 one woman shows and received numerous awards. Genny Hendricks and Yvonne Waters make it possible for Judy to continue to participate today since she no longer drives. They pick her up and take her to Senior Action Mixed Media class in Greenville once a month. These classes keep Judy thinking and producing art to answer their questions of "How- to?" Thanks to their persistence and the grandchildren's questions about painting this book was produced to share what had so freely been given many years ago when Judy listened to her mother and sister talking about painting.