IN TRIBUTE
to Judith Raphael
In tribute to Judith Raphael, this container is dedicated to an artist whose work radiates with the energy of adolescence, the humor of myth, and the resilient strength of girlhood. Born in 1938 in Chicago, Raphael’s journey has been both deeply personal and powerfully universal—rendering the emotional landscape of growing up with honesty, poetic nuance, and fearless imagination.
Her art—the intimate, narrative-driven scenes of girls suspended between childhood and adulthood—captures the paradox of adolescence: playful yet perceptive, awkward yet audacious. She reclaims heroic tropes from classical sculpture—Greek warriors, orators, even satyrs—and reinterprets these macho stances through the figures of contemporary girls. In doing so, she gently mocks age-old paradigms and repositions young women as powerful, centered beings.
Raphael’s work unfolds across decades, from richly patterned watercolors of plants and animals, to enigmatic early figurative scenes that confronted mythology and identity, to bold, later images of girls skydiving, wheel‑running, or commanding open sky—assertions of freedom, joy, and self‑determination.
Her distinguished career includes exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago, alongside national residencies and commissions. Educator and mentor, she taught at Moraine Valley Community College (1969–2000) and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, leaving a lasting imprint on generations of artists.
This container, bearing her name, becomes a symbol of transformation. As Raphael reimagines the forms and narratives of girlhood, so too may what lies within be animated with courage, creativity, and the daring optimism she so vibrantly embodies. May it travel with the same gravity—or lightness—of her spirited characters, poised on the cusp of something magnificent.