Georgetown artist makes her mark on the Sox with charity portraits

“I was overwhelmed by the MS and said, ‘Here’s my whole life gone,’” says Bartnicki. “‘I can’t do this anymore.’”

Her life partner Dave Richardson saved her artistic career by figuring out how to tape the pen to her left hand, which no longer has any feeling in it. He also made an extraordinary prediction.

“He never let me give up,” says Bartnicki. “He taped the pen to my hand and wiped my tears. He made a statement, ‘You are going to do portraits of the Red Sox someday.’ He was a huge fan. Of course, I laughed, never giving it a thought. I didn’t even know the Red Sox.”

But now, a few short years later, Bartnicki's art and her efforts to help others through it have led to just that — an arrangement for her to do official portraits of Red Sox players for charity. It’s an outcome Bartnicki attributes to Dave, who died unexpectedly in 2004.

“He said, ‘You will help many people through your art.’ Now, David’s dream is my dream,” says Bartnicki. “I thank God for each day I am able to continue doing my art.”

Bartnicki was devastated at Dave’s unexpected death. She moved from their shared home in Georgetown to a handicapped-accessible apartment at Trestle Way. Without Dave around to tape the pen to her hand, she turned to Health South in Danvers, and had a brace made for her left hand using Dave’s design, one that she can slip on by herself.

Determined to fulfill Dave’s prediction that she would help many people through her art, she began creating exquisite artworks and donating most of the proceeds to the MS Society and other charities.

Bartnicki took up Pointillism in 1976, using the technique founded in the 1800s by French artist Georges Seurat. Each of her original artworks can take from 200 to 800 hours to create, consisting of hundreds of tiny dots. She uses crowquill pens dipped in India ink, and painstakingly places each individual dot in just the right place.

In 2005, while she was still a relatively new resident of Trestle Way, Bartnicki mounted a campaign to sell raffle tickets for a colored print of her beautiful artwork of a little girl playing in the sand on a beach. The raffle sales from that single print brought in $2,300 towards upgrading the greenhouse at Trestle Way, which now has a big new storm door and conserves heat much better during the winter. Many Trestle Way residents grow their own vegetables and flowers in the popular greenhouse.

Also in 2005, Bartnicki drew a beautiful pointillism portrait of the Brocklebank Museum, and during the house tour, signed and sold her limited-edition original Pointillism prints at the museum to raise money for its maintenance. Those prints are still on sale from Bartnicki, to benefit the museum as well as MS research.

Another 2005 fund-raiser was the sale of Bartnicki’s painting of the Salem Depot, to benefit the Boston home for neurologically disabled children and adults in Dorchester.

In 2006, she sold artwork to benefit the Care Services Foster Care and Adoption Program in Taunton, and in Georgetown donated artwork for the Georgetown Music Parents’ auction at the Georgetown Club.

Many people have been collecting Bartnicki’s art for years, including doctors and lawyers from Texas, Ohio and France. Her art is on exhibit in hotels in California and Japan, and is part of the permanent historical display at Salem City Hall.

A segment of the TV show “Robi on the Road” was filmed at Judi’s residence in November 2005, and she has appeared as a guest on the “Jordan Rich Radio Show.” It was the Jordan Rich show that brought a very sick little child named Athena Reitano to Judi’s attention and broke her heart. She arranged to do a pointillism portrait of trivia expert Morgan White Jr. to sell in order to benefit Athena and fund research on her disease, metachromatic leukodystrophy [MLD], a rare disease for which there is no cure and no treatment.

“This disease is so rare, no one is even holding fund-raisers for it,” says Bartnicki.

It was during her fund-raising for Athena that Judi received an order on Dec. 4, 2006 for her powerful portrait of Morgan White Jr. and noticed the e-mail address said Boston Red Sox. She contacted the sender of that email, Caroline Hall, a producer/editor for the Boston Red Sox.

“Out of the clear blue sky I got an order with the name ‘Red Sox’ in the address,” says Bartnicki. “When I filled the order I wrote to Carolyn Hall and told her ‘Just think how much money we could make for charity if I could do portraits of the Red Sox.’”

On Jan. 11 Red Sox management gave the OK for Judi to start her action portraits of team members, and said the players would sign the originals during spring training.

Pitcher Tim Wakefield is the first portrait she has completed, and reaction has been very enthusiastic. She is currently working on one of catcher Jason Varitek.

So that strange and unlikely prediction, made three years ago by her beloved Dave, has come true. Sox management has told Bartnicki to start with just a few players at first, especially since some player contracts are still up for renewal.

“Jordan Rich has been my angel,” says Bartnicki. “He believed in me and look what’s happened. This art has the power. It’s the very special gift God gave to me.”

Bartnicki says she expects her Red Sox portraits autographed by the players will become collectibles in the near future.

You can view Bartnicki’s artwork online at www.jordanrich.com, www.athenashope.org and at the MS Web site, www.nationalmssociety.org/mam/home/.

You can buy the artwork through Bartnicki’s e-mail, Easelexpress@aol.com. The Red Sox series should be available for purchase later this spring.