This is an extremely unique body of work created collaboratively by JB and her long time painting companion, Rita Shapiro. The collaborative works were entirely the vision of Ms. Berkow. She began orchestrating the first ones in 2004. Beginning with a concept and a clear idea of what the final product would look like, she would either execute the first part of the collaborative herself or write a description, as it were, for Rita’s part of the composition. Sometimes she would commandeer existing Shapiro originals, ones that were especially evocative to her imagination, and simply paint a section to go with them.
JB was careful to keep her realism harnessed. She wanted the viewer to get lost in the pure design elements and therefore purposely does not get overly carried away with every detail as she would in her normal form of realism. In this way, she felt it would be easier for the average lay person who does not have a background in art to see the positive and negative spaces, fluidity of the line, abstract shapes, and the alternating contrasting and tonal values that are the underlying elements of any good painting, be it non-objective or realistic.
