Judy Thomas presents Urban Castaway, an elaborate commentary on waste and shelter and life on the street without a bed.  Here, she has created a quilted tarpaulin fashioned from patterned and colorful plastic bags that hangs from two shopping carts, filled with the odds and ends people routinely cast off - twine, bottles, cans and more plastic bags.
 
The curators put forth the notion that the bed where we spend a good portion of our lives, that it is the site of love and passion , of both birth and death, and thus it should evoke a great emotional response, be a subject ripe for inspiration.   Spending nearly one third of our time each day there certainly qualifies the bed as a significant site for exploration.
 
 
Susan Hamburger
Artburgher
Waterfront Week, April 30, 2001
 
 
JUDY THOMAS
Bed Show
Williamsburg Art & Historical (WAH) Center
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Judy Thomas
Urban Castaway, 2001
Recycled Mixed Media
Bed, An Exhbition
WAH Center, Brooklyn
Judy Thomas
Urban Castaway, 2001
Recycled Mixed Media
Bed, An Exhbition
WAH Center, Brooklyn
Judy Thomas
Urban Castaway, 2001
Recycled Mixed Media
Bed, An Exhbition
WAH Center, Brooklyn
‘Quilt’ is a monumental construction conceived of with the urban homeless populations in mind.  Plastic bags the ubiquitous fabric of our daily urban existence, are transformed by Thomas into the vocabulary of Comfort.  They are literally sewn into a quilt, or ‘comforter’, to ease the pain, to keep warmth in, to see in refuse the potential for caring and responsiveness.  Humorous and delightful with references to “Pop” art, this colorful and painterly ‘soft’ sculpture addresses many issues simultaneously.  
Leslie Lund
Curator, Comfort Zones
Tenri Cultural Center, New York