NAKED FACES BRINGS A DISTINCTIVE VISION AND VOICE TO ITUNES APP STORE

    /24-7PressRelease/ - LOS ANGELES, CA, October 08, 2008 - Judy Sue Kushner believes the adage that when one door closes another opens. "Although," she says, "sometimes I need a swift push."

Such a push occurred in August 1997. For the past decade, Judy had been devoting herself to writing melodic pop songs. Now, as she struggled to record a track on the modest equipment in her bedroom, beads of sweat collected on her brow - sticky reminders that for some time she'd felt creatively stifled in her pursuit of songwriting. "I was stuck," she says, "like a footprint in cement."

Then Judy's microphone cord got tangled behind her Chagall print. "It came tumbling down and glass shattered everywhere," she recalls, "so I took refuge down by the pool where two things happened."

First, she decided to stop pursuing a career in music. "It was the easiest decision I ever made," she says emphatically, "probably because it was time."

Second, she saw a beautiful, shimmering face. "I've been seeing faces ever since I was a little kid," she explains. "Nothing ghostly, you understand, just abstract shapes hiding in the shadows and light seeking to edge their way into my consciousness." But none quite as dramatically as the face she saw on the day she decided to refocus her creative energies.

"This was an extraordinary face," she insists, "a face filled with compassion and color. It was telling me that by giving up music, a truer muse would emerge."

Less than a month later, Judy began to study painting. "It was awesome," she says. "The inner critic who demanded perfection had now disappeared." Not everything she painted was spectacular, "far from it!" she says. "But it no longer mattered because with art I gave myself permission to evolve."

Soon, scads of female faces began to poke their way through. "I never know what they're going to look like and sometimes I'm really surprised by how they turn out."

Her goal, she says, has always been to bring her artwork into the mass marketplace - in a way that preserves its quality and at an affordable price. "I'm allergic to tackiness," she says.

When Apple recently announced the opening of its iTunes App Store, Judy immediately thought of creating an App for her faces. "I've always wanted people to be able to download my art from the iTunes store and now, suddenly, it's possible."

Judy decided that her App would consist of 20 faces and 20 three-word affirmations that she would write and record herself. "People tell me my voice is relaxing and soulful," she says. "And it was always the best part of my music."

The next step involved designing the interface and finding a programmer who could turn her concept into reality. Her close friend, Christina Anest, agreed to provide the seed money for the programmer if Judy could find somebody reasonable. Things fell into place when she discovered that a very bright work acquaintance and computer programmer named Loretta Lee could handle the job. Loretta, in turn, brought in programmer Rory O'Connor and the Naked Faces team was complete.

Now, anyone with an iPhone or an iPod Touch and $1.99 can have Judy's colorful and inspiring artwork and inspirational mindset in the palm of their hand.

"If I can communicate through Naked Faces even a small amount of the great compassion I have for humankind," says Judy, "then I will have succeeded."

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