Judith Askinazi will be the Woodbury Public Library "Artist of the Month" during December

HIGHLAND MILLS — Judith Askinazi will be the Woodbury Public Library "Artist of the Month" during December.
A reception in her honor will be held Saturday, Dec. 2, from noon to 2 p.m. at the Highland Mills branch of the library.
About the artistJudith Askinazi has been involved in all types of artwork since she was a young girl in the Bronx. She remembers making paper dolls for the March of Dimes when she was around 10 years of age. It required drawing your own doll, coloring it in with crayons, and cutting it out so that it could stand. They were giveaways to any person donating at least 10 cents.
As she grew up, her art also included more than canvas and paints. She became a designer of gift ware and had her own business during the time she was raising her two daughters. That business involved artistic floral display with fresh and silk flowers and then led to her next business of designing, creating, manufacturing and selling her acrylic florals.
She had two factories in Rockland County and sold her flowers thru stores that attended the New York Gift Show at the Javits Center.
After flowers, she continued to design menorahs and other candelabra for the gift industry for around 10 years. When the Orient copied her designs, she switched to fabric crafted items and, along with her partner, created and designed albums, baby record books and picture frames for all occasions. This business lasted from 1999 until the present.
Askinazi took a few art lessons at the Rockland Center for the Arts around forty years ago, but it wasn’t until moving to Orange County and meeting Don Skier, a wonderful artist in his own right and art teacher, that she became interested in acrylic painting. Along with other artists at the Senior Center every Monday afternoon, she learned to really express her love of flowers in her paintings.