Judy Orcutt was born in York, PA. She was always a tomboy and loved being outside. Tennis, skiing, football, swimming and exploring the local creek were the best. She actually was a synchronized swimmer and had her life saving certificate at 12 years of age. She also was given piano lessons and played the flute and saxophone. She was fortunate to have parents that wanted her to learn new skills and to this day, that is one of the most significant and important aspects of her life-the pursuit of new skills and challenges.
She was idealistic and had dreams of pursuing a medical career. So she went to pharmacy school at Temple University as a possible pre-med curriculum. During that intense period of education, she realized that being a medical doctor was probably not her calling. She found that she loved making the drawings in biology class from the microscopes and the anatomy drawing projects more than the classwork.
She practiced pharmacy for almost 40 years before pursuing her dream of an art career. From the very day she graduated from pharmacy school, she knew she wanted to to do something else. But life experiences sometimes do not allow our dreams to surface until later. Through divorce she became a single parent and had to provide for her family.
Two sons are both graduates of Penn State University. She is a 15 year breast cancer survivor and many of her designs are related to healing and encouragement.
She learned calligraphy in the early 1980’s at the local YWCA. Letters have always fascinated her and the drawing skill was reinforced. Hours and hours and hours of practice of just doing lettering ensued and she started to do projects and gifts for friends and wedding addressing, invitations, etc.. In 1995 she started to add pressed flowers to her work and this created a whole new look that was very satisfactory. Having a botany background enabled her to work on the identification of her flora and she includes that information for each of her designs.
In 1997 she developed QuilliGraphy™ which specializes in designs that celebrate life and beauty. She will tell you to never give up on your dream and to work very hard.
She is a committed church member and she plays tennis, bridge, swims and volunteers for several local organizations.
