Sun City West club names artist of the month

The Artistic Hand Lettering, Cards and Mixed Media Club has named Judy Ross its artist of the month. A few of her artistic pieces of work are displayed in the club’s window located at the Kuentz Center outside of the Pueblo Room.

Ross has been a member of the club for more than 30 years. She joined what was then Calligraphy West because she had hand lettering on her bucket list. After learning several hands, it became apparent that she needed a way to use her lettering. At the time, rubber stamping was very popular, so she immersed herself into paper arts crafting.

She then started teaching classes and techniques all around the Valley. This meshed into her skill set as she had been a teacher in the Davenport, IA school system before moving to Sun City West.

As she developed a following in the paper arts industry, Ross began traveling across the United States teaching. At one of the trade shows where she was teaching, a company based in Hawaii hired her as a designer and thus began a second career as an art designer, traveling across the U.S. and teaching internationally.

Ross has been published in many Design Original books and Expression magazine. She has also appeared on many DIY scrapbooking shows and HGTV crafting shows. “Crafters Coast to Coast” came to her home and taped her in her studio. She also taught Tim Holtz his first rubber stamping classes. Holtz gives Ross credit for being where he is today.

AHL has always been Ross’s roots. She loves the creativity and warmth of the members and continues to expand her creativity by teaching mixed media classes every Friday. She also shares her passion for lettering by teaching classes in that subject as well.

Ross has one son, John Behrens, two grandchildren, and one great-grand baby.

Another passion is theater — Ross has acted in many Theatre West productions and has been selected to direct Neil Simon’s “Rumors.”