A Rockford artist stopped teaching due to a physical ailment, but she didn’t let this stop her from creating. Some of her works are on display at the Freeport Art Museum.
Judith Meyer has taught art for several decades. That abruptly stopped when she got Long COVID. This disease affected her heart.
“I miss teaching a lot,” she said. You know, my students were such a big part of my life. Oh, my God. You know, it's the way things are. So, you know, it's better to accept it.”
Meyer also deals with another ailment that makes drawing a bit challenging. She said macular degeneration runs in her family. She said her mother and grandmother both lost their sight because of the disease. She was diagnosed 15 years ago when she lived in New Mexico. She said people would travel to Mexico, since it was close to the state, to see the doctor.
“And we went there for lunch, and I thought, well, what the heck, I'll go get some… And the doctor looked at my eyes, and he just goes, “You got something wrong with your eyes.’”
Meyer said when she got home, she visited her doctor. He confirmed what the other doctor suspected. She had the same ailment as her mom and grandmother.
This disease makes it hard for Meyer to see edges when she draws.
“I have to think about like the edge of an animal to paint it,” she explained. “I would have to imagine in my head doing it, and then as I imagine it.”
Meyer pairs her glasses with a magnifying glass to see when she creates those parts. She said this was frustrating at first, but now it’s more like a game to her.
Meyer has been back in the Midwest for a decade and her work has been shown in many places. She said the Freeport Art Museum is top notch.
“It's small in scale,” she added, “but they do have a wonderful permanent collection for of world art, particularly Asian art, which is on display there all the time too.”
Meyer said she loves to paint animals that look realistic. The Freeport exhibit showcases work from two of her series. They are Paradise Places in the North Country and Irrepressibility of Intuition. Meyer explained that she has a strong awareness of things.
“In my life, along with the intuition, I have been through a lot of situations that could have really held me back or stopped me in my tracks for a lifetime, but I'm a survivor, and it takes work, but it's what it does, is that it just makes you richer.”
She said she is not a victim and calls the eyesight problem and Long COVID gifts because they show her that she is more capable than she thought she was.
“The Irrepressible Being of Nature” is dedicated to Meyer’s friend Kathleen Kline.
The exhibition opened Feb. 14 and runs through March 15. Meyer will talk about her artistic journey and her featured work at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday Feb. 22 at the museum.
