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Poetter Hall was purchased by the SCAD founders in March 1979. Classes began in September of that year.  
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The Arts

Pfaff gets connected





By Ally Jackson
Published: Friday, October 19, 2001

Despite her reputation and experience as an artist and educator, Judy Pfaff loves that humble pie.

Articulate and free-speaking about her work, her students at Bard College in New York City and all that inspires her to be an artist, Pfaff recently lectured at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Trustees Theater and sat down with SCAD-TV and me to speak candidly.

She might as well be considered a distinct voice of this generation, as she encourages young artists to look away for a moment from the almighty art scene and divert energy into looking at what it means to be an artist with a distinct language.

For Pfaff, this is not such a difficult task, as her artwork is very much about her soulful connection to the world and her environment. Whether it is the river that runs near her home in upstate New York, the Victorian home in which she resides, or the sidewalks of New York City, Pfaff seeks out the small, and yet powerful, things and transforms them into a myriad of artistic outlets.

"I used to have an art dealer who said ‘be very careful where you take Judy’," said Pfaff. "Because I would come back with all of these ideas from that place. My work used to be very much about location and nature, and especially now that I am living in upstate [New York}, there is a Zen-like quality to the work."

This cannot be any more correct when it is applied Pfaff’s two-dimensional pieces on exhibits at the Red Gallery, 201 E. Broughton St., as a supplement to the current "Doppelgängers," exhibition.

Essentially visceral is the best way to describe the work, as Pfaff goes in and out of botanical and biological worlds. Spirals, circles, distinct layering of images and color fields are present in the two-dimensional work.

Pfaff continually moves back and firth between installations, prints and painting, which is beneficial to producing new innovative works and supportive critical theory.

"The students at Bard are not about survival, for whatever reason, so they are in the world of ideas, which I find kind of dreamy and wonderful," said Pfaff. "My students take me on journeys with their questioning of things -- so unencumbered it keeps me romantic."

Pfaff said she doesn’t feel that she represents the New York art world, even though she is deeply involved in it. Instead she said she feels that students at SCAD and beyond should look toward their surroundings, as it contains a wealth of beauty and ideas about the land that is not valued enough lately in artistic circles.

"There is something about the work and the aggressiveness in the art world, and it not being enough about your hands or your heart or your head," she said. "Students need to be more connected to it in that way."