Prior to moving to San Juan Cosalá, Mexico from Boulder Creek, California in 2001, Judy Dykstra-Brown exhibited her silver and mixed-media jewelry in galleries and arts and crafts shows across the U.S.  In addition, she and her husband collaborated to make award-winning art lamps making use of his sculpted wood and stone and her handmade paper made from mulberry bark.

Since moving to Mexico, she has switched media to make retablos and      found-object wall sculptures as well as freestanding sculptures.

For 15 years, she spent 2-3 months a year in Melaque and La Manzanilla. During her time in La Manzanilla, she made use of materials found on the beach to create her wall sculptures. The initial pieces were made when a fruit crate washed ashore, which she took apart, using the individual slats as backgrounds for her sculptures that made use of shells, wood, bones, stones, plants, and various other natural and man-made items found during her daily walks on the beach.  As in her retablos, each piece tells a story, many of which are implied in the titles.

Although in the past she has participated in the La Manzanilla Art Walk by showing her retablos and jewelry as well as displaying them in the Galeria La Manzanilla, this year she has chosen to show her beach pieces, hoping some of them will be returned to the place of their origins.