April 20, 1939 - September 9, 2024
In loving memory ~
Judith (Judy) Wapp (Nee Bearman) of Josephine Street, New Denver, British Columbia joined the ancestors on September 9, 2024. Her burial ceremony was held at the Slocan Lake Green Burial Ground, New Denver, BC on Sept 13. She was 85.
Judy was a friendly, artistic, lover of words who was often flamboyant and outspoken, always unusual, and occasionally very stubborn. She appreciated any opportunity to laugh and had a great sense of the absurd.
Judy is survived by her partner of 54 years, David Everest (New Denver, BC), her daughter, Bessie Wapp (Nelson, BC), her step-daughter, Lyndsay Moffatt (Charlottetown, PEI), and her son, Josh Wapp (Nelson, BC). She is predeceased by her parents Charlotte and Ralph Bearman.
She attended the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota, where she graduated with a BFA and then attended the Art Students League of New York where she was awarded a McDowell Fellowship for work and travel. Judy emigrated to Toronto, Canada in 1968 and then moved to the West Kootenay region of BC in 1971.
As well as her work as an artist: painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, photography, collage, photo montage, and writing, Judy had paid work as: an assembly line worker, a postal worker, leather worker, ESL teacher, tree planter, chambermaid, waitperson, education program coordinator, library clerk, librarian, and bread deliverer. She also had unpaid work as: a mother, a gardener, a cook, and for about 19 years she was a co-host of Straight No Chaser, a 2 hour jazz show on Kootenay Coop Radio.
Judy's artwork has been presented internationally in various galleries, venues, print publications, digital spaces, and on CD covers, but her last art project was one shared with friends: sticker-adorned postcards bearing the fruit of a daily haiku composition practice. In Spring 2024 Nelson Museum, Archives and Gallery honoured her with a retrospective exhibit spanning her life's work.
Judy loved the food, humour, and Yiddish language of the Minneapolis Jewish culture in which she was born and raised, but she was not religious. She was heartbroken by the news of war crimes in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Judy had a wonderfully rich singing voice and accompanied herself on guitar. She also loved watching movies and reading. These were among many pleasures and capabilities taken from her by memory loss due to progressive dementia, but until very near the end of her life she continued to enjoy singing, crossword puzzles, Scrabble, and piping in with a clever pun.
A Celebration of Judy's Life will be held next spring (probably in May) in Nelson, BC. Details will be announced in early spring 2025.
Friends wishing to make a donation in her memory can do so to either The Slocan Lake Green Burial Society