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	Judy Onofrio: An Artist’s Life   1939   Born Judith Keith Tyree in New London, Conn., to Marge and Vice Admiral John Tyree. 1939- 1957   Multiple moves between the port cities of New London, Conn., Virginia Beach, Va., and Washington, D.C., provide ample ground for exploring and collecting: picking up shells, watching whales wash up on the beach, exploring deserted nightclubs buried under sand dunes by hurricanes. 1957   Vice Admiral Tyree vetoes the idea of art school; at his insistence, Judy stays in Bristol, Va., to study business law and economics at Sullins College when her parents and younger sister, Johanne, move to Japan. 1958   Joins her family in Japan for the summer after completing her first year at Sullins. While teaching swimming lessons, meets Lt. Cmdr. Burton M. Onofrio, a neurosurgeon stationed at the naval hospital. Their romance lasts just two weeks before she returns to Virginia. 1960   Burton joins Judy in Virginia over Christmas break, and the two are engaged. They marry in June, the day after her graduation from Sullins. 1960- 1964   Family moves to Rochester, Minn., for Burton’s four-year neurosurgical residency at the Mayo Clinic. Births of two sons: Scott, 1962; Gregg, 1963. Begins to bake volumes of bread, a pastime that later influenced her work with clay. 1964- 1966   Another move, to Washington, D.C., where Burton fulfills his naval service at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Daughter Jennifer is born, 1966. Judy takes classes in clay at Potomac Stoneware and the Corcoran College of Art + Design. 1967   Family moves back to Rochester, Minn., when Burton accepts a permanent neurosurgical position at the Mayo Clinic. 1970   Is appointed acting director of the Rochester Art Center, beginning a lifelong involvement with the regional arts community. 1971   Founds and acts as director of Total Arts Day Camp at Rochester Art Center for children in grades 1-8; program is the first in the region to be run by artists and provide studio space for children, and still operates today. 1971- 1978   First solo clay exhibition at the Rochester Art Center, 1971. Participates in numerous solo and group exhibitions, primarily throughout the Midwest. 1972 Helps found and acts as president of the Minnesota Crafts Council, launching Craft Connection magazine during her tenure. 1975   Serves on founding committee of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA), an artist-controlled program in which exhibitions are set by a panel of artists elected by their peers. 1978   Receives a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship Grant, a critical factor in shaping the next stage of her career. 1979   Collaborates on Frog Hearts and Lima Beans exhibition with artist Gregory Bitz, curated at The College of St. Catherine by Thom Barry. Barry becomes a close friend and later shows Judy’s work at his Minneapolis gallery. 1982 Builds a new studio at her home to accommodate her desire to create large-scale sculpture. While giving a lecture at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, meets Sherry Leedy, then an associate professor, later an art dealer based in Missouri. 1984   First large-scale pyrotechnic work, Slippery When Wet, created at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. 1989 First show of wall constructions at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Mo. 1992   Accepted for Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program for an exhibition the following year at the MIA. Receives a Minnesota State Arts Board Career Opportunity Grant to produce the exhibition. 1993   Judyland, described by Leedy as “a visual tour de force of flamboyant surfaces,” opens at the MIA. Exhibition is held over by popular demand for six weeks. 1994   Receives an Arts Midwest/NEA Regional Fellowship Grant. 1995   Receives a McKnight Foundation Fellowship in the Visual Arts, which she uses for the year-long work of building a 19-foot-tall sculpture, A Woman and Her Bear. Judyland travels to Laumeier Sculpture Park and Museum in St. Louis, Mo., where Judy’s first public sculpture, I Just Play for Fun, is installed at the sculpture park. Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art begins showing Judy’s work annually at Sculpture Objects & Functional Art (SOFA) in Chicago, gaining the attention of national and international collectors. 1999   Receives a Bush Artist Fellowship and uses funding to double the size of her studio by building a wood shop in her garage for large power equipment. 2000   With Burton, receives the Rochester Art Center Lifetime Achievement Award for their contributions to the growth and development of the center over a 30-year span. 2001   Honored with the Minnesota Crafts Council Lifetime Achievement Award. 2002   Presents four-day, onstage workshop at Minnesota State University Mankato with friends and fellow artists Rudy Autio and Don Reitz. 2005- 2006   Works with Sherry Leedy to develop Come One, Come All, a traveling exhibition featuring new sculpture and selections from the past decade: Spring, 2005: Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, Mo. Summer/Fall, 2005: Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Ark. Spring, 2006: Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minn.