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Judi Lightfield: Painting Through the Bubble
Her artist statement speaks of “bubbles”—a metaphor for how people exist in their own fragile, self-contained worlds. At first, her visual bubbles floated in cosmic, surreal space. Over time, the backgrounds grounded into abstract landscapes with skies, mountains, and trees. The human figure disappeared for a while, then returned. Early figures were stiff. Now they float. Sometimes they try to escape. Sometimes they collide.
She asks, “Are you safe in your own bubble? Are you free without it?”
Judi Lightfield’s life has always orbited around art. Born just 21 miles from New York City, she spent her childhood wandering the halls of the Metropolitan Museum and MOMA. The works of the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Renaissance masters, and Abstract Expressionists weren’t foreign to her. They were part of her everyday world.
By 13, she had already tried to escape that world. She ran away to the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Her plan ended at 2 a.m. in Washington Square Park, where police found her. She calls her childhood unhappy. But she grew up. And she kept painting.
In 1977, she moved to Denver. Her first gallery show came in 1984. Five paintings sold. The gallery paid for two, then went bankrupt. “Sometimes it still feels like that,” she says. “Five steps forward, three steps back.” But she kept going.
Through her 30s and 40s, Lightfield built a national career. Her paintings were shown in galleries across the country—from Jackson and San Francisco to Atlanta and Chicago. Her work was selling, she was traveling, and her name was known.
Then everything changed.
On February 6, 2005, Lightfield’s daughter, Sarah, was supposed to come home for dinner. Instead, Lightfield found her dead in her apartment. Sarah had an allergic reaction to a prescription drug. She had called 911 but was too incoherent to explain. Help never came.
Her world stopped.
A year later, Lightfield turned grief into action. She sold every painting she had and held two fundraising events. She raised $38,000 and created The Sarah McConnell Fund at the Denver Foundation. She still maintains the fund today. But the process of rebuilding her identity took years.
Her titles reflect the primary colors used in each work. A number in parentheses notes how many figures are in the scene. The question isn’t just about visual art. It’s about survival. It’s about change.
Lightfield studied Environmental Design at the University of Massachusetts, then earned her Fine Arts degree from the University of Oregon. After moving to Colorado, she worked at the Denver Art Museum and completed a Master of Arts in Education from Regis University.
She spent decades teaching—college students, children, seniors. Her youngest student was three. Her oldest, ninety-three.
Now retired from teaching, Judi Lightfield continues to paint. Her work isn’t about perfection or resolution. It’s about process, movement, and the courage to re-emerge.
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