Obituaries

Recent Obituaries
In Memoriam Archive

Judy A. Boyer Gibson MAT ’65

Judy A. Boyer Gibson MAT ’65, January 20, 2011, in Redmond, Oregon, from complications of breast cancer. A potter and world traveler, Judy was born in Bremerton, Washington, and attended Linfield College in McMinnville, as well as the University of Aix-Marseilles in France; she earned a bachelor's degree from San Fernando State College. After completing a master's degree from Reed, she taught French and Spanish at Pacific University in Forest Grove, and taught humanities and English in schools in Piedmont, California. She and her husband, Hal Gibson, were living in Berkeley in the ’60s when the ceramics revolution took place, establishing the medium as a fine art. Judy wrote: “I became captivated by porcelain, and in a very short time, I abandoned my teaching career and became a potter.” She set up a studio in her home, and, for the next 25 years, learned the craft, sold to galleries, did shows, and became a master potter in porcelain, primarily following the tradition of classical Chinese forms and glazes. Winters, off-season for her art, presented the opportunity for travel. She spent seven winters in Tobago, West Indies, learning to use local clay in a primitive studio she made. “As I was unable to get the proper papers to set up a business, I decided to travel elsewhere.” Other destinations were in Europe, South and Central America, Southeast Asia, Nepal, and the Near East. She and Hal built a passive, solar adobe house in New Mexico. They lived 10 years on the East Coast, where she took classes in writing and painting at the New School of Social Research in New York City. In 2003, the couple moved to Redmond, Oregon, where Judy set up a potting studio and began again to work on porcelain, and she published a collection of her short stories, Floating Free, in 2008. Survivors include Hal, her mother, and a niece and nephew.

Appeared in Reed magazine: June 2011

comments powered by Disqus