The quick death of artist Judith Taylor from a sudden illness struck her friends in the art community for its untimeliness. Taylor had missed her yoga class, and they hadn’t known why. The day of the Philagrafika press and VIP opening, they were reeling and could talk of little else. Taylor, a photographer, was professor and program coordinator of photography in Arcadia University’s art department.

Here’s what artist Nancy Lewis had to say:

i met judy through her work. when i worked at temple gallery her diary pages were in an exhibit, “ophelia rising.” i fell in love with these images…so rich in print quality and light (she was a master) and so full of tenderness and feeling. probably because i am a woman who kept a diary as girl made me connect to them more so, but even the way they were composed was masterful and sensitive beyond the actual subject. i also liked that they were photos of handwriting–young girls’ cursive handwriting. they were rich with memory but also graphic and awkward, careful and sad. years later i put them in “selections 6” at moore. we had planned to do a trade (so i could get one! i don’t know if there was actually anything she wanted from me), which unfortunately for me never happened. i gave her a lot of freedom for the selections 6 show and she was able to also do a large installation of something she had not been able to show in its entirety before (studio window, from mitchell street). it was clearly a thrill for her and i enjoyed watching her have so much fun with her work and explain her process to those in the gallery space. when i did a studio visit, prior to the selections show, we had lunch, we looked at her collection of work by others (she had some great stuff, but i can’t remember names right now), we went out in her backyard and talked about her garden and plants, and i think we barely talked about her work. we just visited. but it was so comfortable and welcoming to be in her environs. it was a wonderful little nest. she gave me seed pods from some of her flowers….cleome i believe.

i am so sorry she is gone.