A fascination with the great Seminole leader Osceola is not something one might expect of a Connecticut Yankee who grew up drawing ladies in fancy dresses with her two sisters. But a bronze bust and oil portrait of the Seminole Wars resistance leader are among the most striking and heartfelt works of New Haven native Judy Burgarella, a Sebastian artist and art teacher.
Burgarella started drawing as soon as she could hold a pencil, watching and emulating her two big sisters. “I learned a lot drawing paper dolls,” she says. All through school, Burgarella admits, “I wasn’t an A student – except for Art. But what I lacked in academics I way made up for in art. “
After graduating high school, Burgarella spent a brief time in California, soon returning to Connecticut. She married Bob Burgarella in 1970 and the couple had two daughters, Tracy and Robin. “While the kids were little, I was always drawing faces. To make a little money on the side, I’d do portraits as special occasion gifts, and I taught arts and crafts and wrote for Crafts Magazine.” She also had her own craft business, her own secretarial service and was sales administrator for an Ultrasound company.
Although she wasn’t always able to pursue it, art has always been the driving force for Burgarella. “I was so excited about art, about what it can do for you. It is so exciting making something out of nothing!”
In the 1980s and 1990s, she had only “dabbled,” but by around 2000 she had begun to work seriously on developing her skills. While portraits were always her great love, she painted landscapes and still life as well, working in watercolor, oil and, later, acrylic. “I started a club in Connecticut: Shoreline Plein Aire Painters. I’d organize shows, and we ended up travelling all over – Connecticut, Rockport, MA, Greece, Portugal. I’d just go up to people’s doors and ask if we could set up our easels on their land.”
Like many northerners, when the Burgarellas had had their fill of “ice, snow and slush,” they headed south and built a home in Sebastian in 2005. Burgarella soon became active in the county art scene, joining the Artists Guild Gallery in Vero Beach and serving as its publicity coordinator. She painted two panels of the new mural in the Vero Beach Community Center and, at one point, she says, rolling her eyes, “I was doing 15 blogs. I love doing publicity, bringing attention to artists who are often under the radar.”
She has also done a blog for the Sebastian River Art Club, in which she has been active for years, serving terms as vice-president and secretary, doing publicity for the Club’s Art Around Town, teaching several classes. She has taught oils, acrylics, pastels, pencil, charcoal, watercolors, and various crafts, including basket weaving. “My favorite medium, she smiles, “is always the last one I did.”
With a lifelong love of learning, as a new Floridian, she had delved into the state’s history and became fascinated with the story of Osceola. “He was a great man,” she says, “fierce and ruthless, but a great man. And he was only part Indian. He was Scottish, English and Indian, but all Seminole in his heart.” Determined to learn everything there was to know about Osceola and to portray him as he really was, she studied everything she could find, seeking a true likeness. Deciding to create a sculpture of Osceola, she enrolled in a class at Vero’s Museum of Art, and was in the midst of learning the complicated process of bronze casting, creating the piece in clay and making the mold. As the piece was being poured, she discovered that Osceola’s death mask existed at the New York Historical Society. “I called them up and asked to see it. I flew up there and got a private showing. I was all alone in the room, except for the guard. Just before he died, Osceola put on all his regalia and war paint. I still get goose bumps.”
The resulting sculpture and portrait reflect that intense emotion.
When teaching a class, “I usually do a little demo first.” A year or so ago she taught a popular series, once a week for six weeks, covering something different each week. With 60-70 students, her demo canvases had to be really big. Her ebullient personality and obvious enthusiasm for art unfailingly generates excitement in her students, whom she encourages to “paint what you like. What you enjoy. Art shouldn’t be boring. And forgive yourself for your mistakes!”
A gifted, natural teacher, she treasures seeing the pleasure and understanding appearing in her students as they learn “how to look, to see where the color is, and where it isn’t. It’s exciting to have a part in helping people see something with different eyes. It’s the best gift (an artist) can give.”
A year or so ago, Vero Beach photographer Bob Barbour asked Burgarella to paint a portrait of him. When she arrived to begin the work, she saw that he had a video camera set up. Barbour condensed the 4-hour session into a fascinating 2-minute video which can be seen on youtube.com – “Judy Burgarella paints Bob Barbour’s portrait.”
For herself, Burgarella says, “I love the eyes. I paint them first. When I get the eyes right, I’m excited. It gets my mojo going to do the rest.” In her portrait works, human or animal, the eyes are compelling, alive, appearing lighted from within. A trio of such portraits – two women, one ancient, one modern, and a Florida panther – are among her works currently on display in the wonderfully re-done Sebastian Art Club Gallery.
In the past several months, Burgarella has put her art on the back burner, as her daughter, Robin, and her husband recently moved to town with 3-year-old daughter Salem. “She walking, well, running,” Burgarella smiles broadly. “She’s a princess – and she’s an artist like her grandma. She helped us paint the house.”
Judy and Bob are enjoying being Gamma and PopPop, helping their daughter take care of Salem when she’s at work in her Crimson Key Estate Sales business or with Dale Sorensen Real Estate.
But soon Burgarella will return to her art and again become active in art shows and several area art organizations, including the Sebastian River Art Club. She will teach two classes, Aug. 7 and Aug. 21, 9 a.m.-noon, at the Sebastian Art Center, 1245 Main St. And she’ll likely be a more active blogger. “I have a lot to say and a lot to share,” she declares.
Today, Burgarella has no desire to travel. “I am perfectly happy here in Sebastian. I have the river, the flowers, many species of birds. It’s as if we were just dropped into Paradise.”