Judy Garfin was born August 30, 1945, in Edmonton, Alberta and raised in Jasper, Alberta and Vancouver, British Columbia. At age 17, She spent a year in Israel returning to complete her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature at the University of British Columbia and the City College of New York. She studied sculpture at the Art Students League in New York City and painting and printmaking at the Vancouver School of Art with Tamarind Master Printer Robert Bigelow. In 1973, she received her M.F.A. from The Maryland Institute College of Art’s Hoffberger School of Painting directed by abstract expressionist painter, Grace Hartigan. Upon graduation, she won the Walters Art Museum Traveling Fellowship that is awarded to one graduating MFA candidate. She has lived in Israel, New York City, Ireland and Italy and has traveled through Europe, Guatemala, The Galapagos Islands,, India, Thailand and Indonesia as well as across Canada and the United States. Her experiences in other cultures have profoundly influenced her art work opening avenues into image creation that undermines western concepts of hierarchy and artfulness. - See more at: http://www.judygarfin.com/About#sthash.FNOSv2wu.dpuf