Face to Face

"From Rembrandt to Ingmar Bergman, the human face has served as the artist's most profound landscape. Judy Schavrien follows in that vein with this impassioned collection of portraits of many kinds of people, some suffering, some triumphing over old age and infirmity. The artist reveals herself and her richly variegated sensibility in this stunning gallery." (Joseph McBride, Author, Frank Capra:The Catastrophe of Success )

"[It] is a beautiful gem of a book! Schavrien touches the heart and soul with her deeply personal weaving of prose and portraiture. Through her sensitive exploration of the human face and the stories to be discovered there, we come to see and feel more profoundly what it means to be human." (Helen S. Cohen, Artist; Filmmaker, Open Studio Production)

"[Her] paintings are soul x-rays, portals to the mysterious and deeply moving inner lives of her subjects. Beyond being an artist and a psychotherapist, she is a seer. As Martin Buber has said, we can encounter the world as I-It or I-Thou. Schavrien's visionary art tracks...the sacred Thou." (Dr. Jacob Shefa, Mentor-Director, KARE)

"Whether she gives us Barbara as the Queen Mother, a lovely traditional portrait, though edged with irony; Grace, with its few, elegant linear gestures; or life like leaves falling, an almost non-objective portrayal, Schavrien serves up a visual feast. She is a thoroughly modern artist, master of her mediums." (Neil Kalmanson, Professor Emeritus of Art)

"Best of all, Schavrien combines portraits of her contemporaries in the flesh with portraits of those who haunt our imaginations. [There is] the uniquely dramatic collection of the heroes and heroines who walked the ancient Greek stage and still float in the background of our culture after 2500 years. In extremis, each character confronts us, Oedipus, Cassandra, Antigone. Then there is Hades, Lord of the Underworld, 'who feasts on the victims of war.' What a feat of imagination!" (Terry Joan Baum, Owner, Eureka Gallery)