Judith Scott

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Judith Scott (May 1, 1943 – March 15, 2005) was an Outsider artist. She was a fraternal twin to Joyce Scott, and she was deaf and had Down syndrome. She worked at the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California.

Judith Scott spent her first seven years at home with her twin. Although the developmental gap between the two girls was apparent, "the parents consciously sought to treat these youngest members of the family alike. They were often dressed identically, and they were encouraged to participate in every experience or event on equal terms" (MacGregor, p.44).

When it was time for the girls to start attending school, Judith was found to be "ineducable," not even qualified for the class for children with learning disabilities. The Scott family chose to place Judith into an institution for the mentally retarded, the Columbus State School, on October 18, 1950. This separation from her twin had a profound effect on Judith's development.

The records from Judith Scott's first few years at the School inform us that she had an IQ of 30 and was thus not involved in any training opportunities. She was also severely alienated, and behavioral problems soon surfaced. Her Clinical Record states that "She does not seem to be in good contact with her environment. She does not get along well with other children, is restless, eats messily, tears her clothing, and beats other children. Her presence on the ward is a disturbing influence" (MacGregor, p. 50). This is a reflection on the care-givers, who for almost 30 years never realised that Judith was deaf.

In 1986, Joyce Scott had an epiphany during which she decided that Judith had to be near her, and immediately had her sent to California, a state where all mentally retarded citizens have the right to an ongoing education.

On April 1, 1987, Judith Scott started going to the Creative Growth Art Center. In her first few months at the center, Judith was unexceptional with paint. She scribbled loops and circles, but her work contained no representational imagery, and she was so uninterested in creating it that her sister was considering ending her involvement with the program.

But within a few months, Scott was able to take a fiber art class with artist Sylvia Seventy. It was in this class that Judith invented her own radically different kind of artistic expression. While other students were stitching, she was sculpting with an unprecedented interest and concentration.

Scott took cardboard cones and other found objects (often stealing them from other people at the Center) to form cores which she then wrapped with yarn, forming vessels that resemble cocoons or sometimes body parts. Sometimes she simply wrapped sticks with yarn, forming totemic poles. Many of her works also feature pairs; Scott's experience as a twin is essential to her work.

Scott's work has become immensely popular within the world of outsider art, and her pieces have fetched up to $15,000 at auction. [1]