'INTUITIVE' ARTIST'S SHOW KICKS OFF RECEPTION OPENS MULTIMEDIA EXHIBIT.

Byline: Peggy Hager Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A reception for multimedia artist Judi Burnett will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. today, kicking off an exhibit that runs through Aug. 27 at the Cedar Center Art Gallery.

Burnett works with acrylics, oils, paper, pencil, watercolor, clay and collages, using the human body as her major theme.

``The human body is very beautiful and interesting, depending on a person's age, who they are,'' Burnett said. ``It is often used for life drawings so you get to get very familiarized with it.''

Burnett was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and moved as a child to New York City, where she attended the prestigious High School of Music and Art. She said her passion for art began in the fourth grade.

``I was the resident artist in elementary school,'' Burnett joked.

With artwork ranging from classical portraits to abstracts of the human body, Burnett says she draws inspiration from the work of Picasso.

``When he was very young he was able to draw something perfectly, exactly the way he actually saw it, but as he kept maturing and creating more art, it became more abstract,' she said. ``He found that form contained more than the little uptight need to do everything exactly the way you see it.''

As Burnett has progressed in her artwork she has moved on to different mediums including clay and stone. She will give a free clay sculpture demonstration at the gallery on Aug. 15.

Calling herself an intuitive artist, Burnett begins a project without a clear idea of what she wants. ``I sort of start and then it goes whichever way it wants to go.''

One of her creations was a fist-sized lump of rock which she intended to be a horse until she struck it for the first time and a large piece fell off, at which point the sculpture turned into a woman's torso and a bear.

``When you look at a mass of stone, you try to work with the form you already have there because it's easier to make it into something,'' said Burnett.

Burnett's first show was in 1983 when she was a student at Valley College and a member of the San Fernando Art Club. After moving to the Antelope Valley in 1991 with her husband and five children, she joined the Allied Arts Association and has since exhibited at the Antelope Valley Fair, the Poppy Festival, the Lancaster Museum and Art Gallery and the Palmdale Playhouse.

She measures her success by the satisfaction she receives from her artwork.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Artist Judi Burnett hangs a collage titled ``Danielle.''

(2) Artist Judi Burnett painted ``Gaia assigns the Caribou.''

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer