Some people deserve great respect and Judith Kaplan with her quiet dignity is one! She is a tiny thing, but huge ideas and success develop from her touch I have learned. I am finding life lessons in these women who are inside the Women's Caucus for Art and they still astound me in what they accomplish. Abbe the slacker is in awe of how they go full speed ahead to network and push in an effort to acquaint the world with their many vast talents.
Tonight was a reception for Judy, (in blue oriental jacket) highlighting her work to be shown through the month at Steinway Piano Gallery in Altamonte Springs. Steinway has an excellent facility in the back of their store and do showcase an artist a month with a portion of the proceeds going to the Steinway Society Of Central Florida. We were told how Steinway will provide a used piano to deserving underprivileged children. The child or teen in return must play in a recital at Steinway for them to keep the piano for the next year. Kathy and Gary Grimes put on a wonderful and classy reception, they are host and hostess and founded The Steinway Society. There was good food and a festive jazz band called the Bernie Lee Trio and a very good turn out, all tables were filled.
Her artwork upgraded that monotone room into a delight of motion and color. Judy uses a palette knife like a conductor putting the rights notes in place to make a wonderful symphony. She says the work reflects chaos around us, and yet to me there is a dictum to the bright kaleidoscopic motion. Each of her paintings is distinct and one can almost envision her tiny wrists working that knife around the canvas with huge results. She says a couple of art influences were Pollack and Van Gogh, but clearly she has her own style.
But that's not all that gives Judy color, I read an article about her from a magazine highlighting Judy and husband Warren's accomplishments. Judy is a huge collector of women's history. She was one of the original feminists and I have seen her pictured with Gloria Steinem and Eleanor Holmes Norton. Judy is not one to brag about her accomplishments, I would have never have known this except I googled her name and found this article and her pictures on the internet. The credits are at the bottom, the authors words in bold and italics.
Read on and see what they mean by "dynamite comes in small packages", Judy is the perfect example of that!
Excerpt:
" In the mid 1960's Judy and her husband Warren formed a part time first day cover business "TIPEX", named after the souvenir sheet (Scott 778) of which they had accumulated a very large inventory. They dealt mainly in the classics, early cachet makers, and hand painted cachets. Judy and Warren operated TIPEX full time from 1974 to 1980 and it became the largest retailer in the world specializing in U.S. FDC's. TIPEX was closed in 1980 when they moved to Florida.
She was also an early member of the founding chapter of the National Organization for Women, NOW-NY, and served as its treasurer. It was at this time she decided to do a series of covers on women's history for the organization.
Judith Kaplan of Altamonte Springs, FL was honored as one of the "Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975". Published by University of Illinois Press, this new and groundbreaking directory was released on November 13, 2006. It presents biographies of 2,200 women and men whose successful actions created the modern women's movement...
...currently she is a nationally recognized Orlando-based artist showing at COMMA Gallery in Orlando, is former Chair of Action Products International Inc, an Orlando-based NASDAQ listed toy manufacturer specializing in non-violent, educational toys. A resident of Florida since 1980, Ms. Kaplan was formally a resident of Ocala and Boca Raton. She now resides in Orlando. Under her leadership, the Kaplan family made a major contribution to the building of a civic building on the campus of Central Florida Community College. She currently is funding a Chair in Women's History at the college.
Ms. Kaplan's contributions to the feminist revolution were mainly focused on the importance of researching and documenting women's history and insuring that the knowledge of women's contributions and achievements are included in the education of future generations. She is the creator and producer of the women's history collectible series "The Women's History Series of First Day Covers by N.O.W.- N.Y., which helped induce the U.S. Postal Service to recognize and honor the contributions and achievements of Women to the History of the United States by having them commemorated on U.S. postage stamps. Discussion of her women's history work is included in "Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975" as a part of documenting her feminist achievements.
Judith Kaplan is Secretary and a director of the National Women's History Museum to be located in Washington D.C. Ms. Kaplan owns one of the world's largest private collections of American women's history."
"Feminists Who Changed America", 1963-1975" is available bookstores
Editor Barbara J. Love
Reference:
©The American Philatelist, The magazine of the American Philatelic Society, October 1985, Volume 109 #10, article, "FDC Series Gives Birth to Museum" by Judith Kaplan.
©First Days, The journal of the American First Day Cover Society, April 15th 1998, Volume 43/No.3 article, "The Kaplan Era: History in the making - TIPEX and the NOW-NY Women's History Series" by Richard A. Monty.
© Knottywood Treasures 2005
