Studio Sunday featured artist Judy Chicago is a mixed media installation artist and writer originally from Chicago, Illinois. Chicago was born Judith Sylvia Cohen and later took on the name Chicago after beginning her artistic career. The artist is perhaps best known for her sculptural work The Dinner Party, and for coining the term Feminist Art in the 1970s.

This is an interesting photo of the artist – it seems very candid, and the way that Chicago is holding one paintbrush in her mouth while working with another suggests that she barely notices the camera, that she’s extremely focused on her artwork.

I’m interested in the ceramic dishes that line the walls above Chicago’s head. I would assume that these are color wheels or a sort, or perhaps samples of different paints and glazes arranged on fired ceramics so that the artist can see how each will look on a finished product. That seems like an incredibly useful tool to have up on the wall in a studio like this, and it lends the whole scenario a studious, efficient feeling.

The table in front of the artist is littered with small ceramic containers holding small brushes – it looks ideal for a doing a lot of detailed, close-up painting work. Chicago’s practice has also incorporated a variety of other techniques in more recent years, including everything from needlework and quilting to welding.

Chicago’s work exists in permanent collections and museum exhibits throughout the United States and the U.K. The Dinner Party is currently permanently installed at the Brooklyn Museum. The artist is married to photographer Donald Woodman, with whom she occasionally collaborates.

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