Every week, the Features Section publishes an interview with a particularly active, interesting, or notorious senior: the WesCeleb. But where do these people go after they graduate? In our WesCelebs Revisited series, The Argus reconnects with alumni who got the special designation in the past to hear about their time at Wes and see what they’re up to now! 

In her original WesCeleb interview, Judith Klausner ’07 talked about the color of her hair, casting a friend’s head in plaster to create a puppet, and the possibility of sculpting professionally (spoiler alert: it happened). The Argus caught up with her to talk about her obsession with insects, what it’s like to have their work go viral, and the effects of mental and physical health on one’s career.

The Argus: What is your memory of this interview when it first happened?

Judith Klausner: I had completely forgotten that it happened. Honestly, I had only one memory when you reminded me of it: this vague reflection that I was referred to as “the blue-haired girl.”

A: You talked about your work in puppetry and as a costume designer, but you were only a sophomore at the time of the interview. Did you continue your work with theater and puppetry for the rest of your time at Wes?

JK:  I know I mentioned that puppetry is basically an extension of sculpture for me, which is what I was majoring in and what I have continued to do with my life. I don’t think I did any more in puppetry, specifically, during the rest of my time there. Costuming has always been a passion of mine—I continued to do that through the rest of my time at Wesleyan. I don’t think I have done it in any official capacity since college, but I certainly do it in a hobbyist way. I costume many of my friends for Halloween every year and I start planning my Halloween costume months in advance. 

A: What are you dressing up as for Halloween this year?

JK: This year, I’m going with a 1920s stylized luna moth, sort of inspired by these great costumes from the 1920s, of women dressed as butterflies. I like bugs a lot. I’m more into moths than butterflies, so I decided to go in a moth direction.

A: Your website mentioned that your senior thesis was constructed out of insects. What did that look like?

JK: Yes, it was constructed primarily out of insects. There were other materials, too, but it was very insect-based. My thesis was a sculpture thesis, and for my exhibit I did a traditional natural history style display, but what was on display were all insect-human hybrids, which I sculpt-created. I did a lot of studying of taxonomic classification systems, and created a taxonomy for them, and things like that.

A: Why insects?

JK: That’s a hard one to answer. It probably originates from the fact that my parents took me to a lot of rainforests when I was very little. As a five-year-old, if there were things that moved and scared me, my parents went out of their way to point out what was interesting about them, and to say, “Oh yeah, these things are really cool!” My parents really made an effort pointing out the aesthetic aspects so I wouldn’t be afraid of them, and I ended up loving bugs! I’m the crazy bug lady!

A: What was the career path you took after Wesleyan? 

JK: I’m a sculptor, that is my career. I actually had a pretty rough time of it at Wesleyan. The sculpting professor at the time didn’t particularly like me—told me I should give up on art altogether, made me cry a lot, and didn’t allow me to have a space to work on my sculptor thesis for the first few months. I wouldn’t have had a space if the rest of the thesis students weren’t like, “Actually, no, you should work in the thesis space, with all of us, where you’re supposed to be.” 

One of the things that I’m most proud of honestly is that I kept doing art after that, despite that experience. It’s a difficult path, and it’s complicated, and it doesn’t all go in one direction. There have been some really exciting points and some points where nothing really happens. 

I had a very strange experience in 2011 or 2012: I had some of my art go viral on the internet. That was really exciting and also really terrifying. I’m really open about the fact that I suffer from anxiety and I was not medicated for it at the time, which made the whole thing much more overwhelming. I also have a chronic pain condition, and that has deeply affected the way I interact with the world.

My art going viral was really exciting, and it led to a lot of interesting opportunities: I got to have my work featured in magazines all over the world and have exhibits in a variety of different countries and TV shows. [But] also, I basically had a constant panic attack, and there were a bunch of things that I probably could have leveraged into my career going forward much faster if I hadn’t been that [anxious]; instead my reaction was to curl into a ball and hyperventilate. 

There have been years of just really terrible artist’s block. I think anyone in the creative field hits a period of time in which they’re just like, “I’m just not inspired to do anything.” It’s frustrating and it feels like you just have an itch under your skin you can’t scratch. Honestly, that’s part of why I always knew I wanted to do art, because I can’t not do it. When I don’t do it, it’s icky. But the last year or so I’ve been working on a lot of new work and that’s been really exciting, and I have stuff in a couple of shows right now and one of the most exciting—I had to check what exactly I’m allowed to say—a few of my pieces are being used as set decor on an as-yet unreleased Marvel film. That is what I’m allowed to say, I believe. I signed an NDA.

A: Just out of curiosity, what was it that went viral?

JK: A decade ago now—wow, I’m really old—I did a series that involved Oreo cameos where I took Oreo cookies and sculpted the frosting, mostly Victorian style, and a couple in the traditional Greco-Roman style.

A: What inspired you to work with Oreos? It seems like it wasn’t the typical style of sculpting that appears on your website.

JK: I don’t know if I would say that I have one specific style of sculpting. In that series there was fiber work and mosaic work and a whole bunch of different stuff. It was sculpting with something that was not quite clay-like, but at least mushy, and figurative, which has been traditionally what I did. That whole series started with a pun in my head when I was in a grocery store. I thought, “I wonder if I can do crafts with Kraft.” I started looking up what Kraft owned, which was its own rabbit hole, because they own half the world, which was a little upsetting, and in the end, it was just [Oreos’] nice color contrast and the delicate shape and size which lent itself well. Most things in my life start with a bad pun.

A: Do you have any advice you would give to a current Wesleyan student?

JK: That’s hard because I feel like the university experience is different every few years because the population changes. I haven’t been back to Wesleyan since I graduated, which is unusual among people I know. But I honestly didn’t have a very good experience [at Wesleyan], and I think most of the people I know did. It’s not a piece of my life that in most cases I really wanted to revisit. 

The biggest positive when I was there were interpersonal connections—learning to build relationships with my peers—and learning to say no to things. I worked in the costume shop, so I got asked periodically by Second Stage [to costume their] productions. I knew I would be doing a thesis my senior year, so I thought, “Every time I do a production it takes up a huge amount of my energy and my time. I can’t do it while I’m doing a thesis. I am going to learn how to say no, and I am going to say no to costuming any productions my senior year.” And then someone approached me to costume [a production]. He was an English major, and he knew how to get me, because he was like, “But you would be making a giant insect costume,” and I couldn’t say no. It was kind of a disaster, and it was incredibly stressful. You can pursue things without saying yes to every opportunity. 

Also, if you love doing something, try not to be totally discouraged if one person in your life tells you that you’re no good or that you shouldn’t do it, and find the people who make you feel like you can do things. While I would’ve loved to have a mentor in my sculptor professor and didn’t, the head of the costume shop was amazing. That was a big part of what got me through my experience there, and he is someone who I’m actually still friends with now. My experience [at the costume shop] was really supportive and felt like a community, and feeling like there was somebody who I looked up to, who I can come and talk to, and who would teach me things was really important. Finding that, even if it’s not in the space you thought it would be, is very important.

 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sofia Sarak can be reached at ssarak@wesleyan.edu.