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Artist: Judith Berkshire Jones
Bio from Judy:
personally invited by the founder of OPA, Shirl Smithson, to be one of the founding members way back in 1991. Shirl and I were good friends and we were both members of the Park Ridge Illinois Art League, which is where I grew up. It is a suburb of Chicago. I was in one of the first regional OPA juried exhibits held at the Nymeyer Gallery in Chicago with an oil portrait of Seattle Slew. Shirl loved horses and Thoroughbred racing. She lived to see OPA become an incredible success but when we started it with a small group of our fellow artists in the Chicago area we could never have imagined what it would become.
Even though I am not a current member I recently spoke with the president of OPA and she has extended an in invitation for me to again become a member, without further jury process, of this amazing organization. I am probably going to do this. OPA has asked me to do a write up of my history and some of the story of how Shirl started OPA.