Judy Gosse grew up in Princeton where she was encouraged by her family to draw and paint. "My mother insisted that my first word was pencil," says Judy, her interest in art beginning very early. All through grade school and high school she continued drawing, even to the point of getting in trouble in math class quite a few times for sketching in the back of her notebook during class. In high school, Judy was fortunate to have four years of art study with respected Princeton artist Mary Winn Walter who inspired her to continue her art education at the University of Kansas Art School.

 

Judy moved to San Francisco where she began her professional career as a designer long before the computer age, learning the foundations of her craft by drawing and laying out type and images manually. The advent of desktop computers expanded the horizons of design and in 1984 a little square box was set on her desk...the first Mac. She learned the software as it came out, including working as a beta-tester for Adobe Illustrator in 1986.

Judy worked in advertising for most of her professional career, starting as a production designer at J. Walter Thompson and moving to Bernard Hodes Group, working her way up to Senior Art Director. She won many design and illustration awards over the years – Addys, EMAs, and a Bay Area CLIO – and enjoyed the creative atmosphere of Bay Area advertising. In 2009 work took her to Washington, DC where she ran an art department for a large Government contractor and worked as an illustrator for the FAA, the Post Office, and Fannie Mae.

 

Judy moved back to Princeton in 2018, seeking a more peaceful lifestyle and pursuing her lifelong dream of becoming a children's book illustrator. Since returning she has been very busy illustrating over two dozen published books for children and adults with hand-drawn, hand painted and digitally drawn original art.