MILLSTONE — Judy Mazzucco of Millstone Township has artwork on display in an exhibition in Ireland through May 22.
Mazzucco and her husband, John Allen, attended the opening ceremony for the “Landscape and Memory” exhibition at the Johnston Central Library Gallery Space in Cavan, Ireland.
They arrived in Dublin on April 23 and traveled more than an hour to Cavan to attend the opening reception that day. They returned to New Jersey on April 26.
Mazzucco is exhibiting three digital photographs she took of horse racing on the North Sea in Duhnen, Cuxhaven, Germany.
Mazzucco is exhibiting a photograph that shows the horses racing on the seabed at low tide. She found the setting “rather surreal” with spectators on the beach, horses racing on the seabed, and sailboats and seagoing ships immediately behind them.
“Landscape and Memory” is curated by visual artist Marilyn Gaffney.
According to the website Cavan Arts, at the opening of the exhibition, Gaffney read text translated from Spanish to English about the project by writer Marta Miranda: “One of our deepest needs is for a sense of identity, belonging and human attachment to landscape and how we find identity in landscape and place. Landscape therefore is not simply what we see, but a way of seeing. We see it with our eye but interpret it with our mind and ascribe values to landscape for intangible spiritual reasons. Landscape can therefore be seen as a cultural construct in which our sense of place and memories inhere.”
Mazzucco said she is pleased to participate in the exhibition.
“It is really exciting. It is very gratifying to have my work selected internationally,” she said.
Mazzucco wanted to display her art in this particular exhibit specifically because it involved an international group of artists. There are 20 artists from around the world, and Mazzucco’s goal was to meet the other artists and network regarding other exhibition opportunities.
“Any time you put artists together from around the world, the result is always exciting,” she said. “The energy is always palpable.”
Mazzucco is well-known in Millstone, where she has resided since early childhood. She retired last year after teaching art in the Millstone Township K-8 School District for 32 years. She is self-described as an interdisciplinary artist, horse person and educator.
She finds traveling to partake in art exhibitions to be exciting and interesting, and she has previously shown her art overseas in the United Kingdom, Holland, Spain and Germany.
Her advice to up-and-coming artists who want to exhibit abroad is simple: “Be prepared for rejection, and don’t take it personally.”
Mazzucco’s work may be viewed at www.judymazzucco.com.