WE ADD UP was created by mother-daughter team Judy Pezdir and Jill Palermo. Judy and Jill are artists, environmentalists, entrepreneurs, and people who are just crazy enough to get a vision and follow it through. The mother-daughter duo has always supported each other’s work and began collaborating on projects in 2002. From fine art painters (see Judy and Jill’s paintings) to political activists (creating The Ribbon Revolution in 2005) to founding I'm Organic, an organic messaging company in 2006, Judy and Jill have always been driven by creating objects of meaning. In 2007, as I’m Organic, Inc. was expanding and being sold in natural food stores across the country, Judy and Jill became increasingly concerned about global warming and wanted to help. And so, WE ADD UP was born.

When Jill was 9, she helped found the elementary school’s first environmental club, KEEP (Kids Ensuring the Earth’s Protection). Ironically enough, Jill was put in charge of creating the club’s t-shirts. Sadly, the club ended about a month after it started when Jill and her friends discovered they couldn’t agree on anything. Her involvement in environmental issues, however, continued through high school and college (studying architecture and art at Carnegie Mellon University), culminating in the creation of a series of sculptures and videos about landfills, deforestation, and industrial pollution. After college, Jill lived in the mountains of Oregon on an organic farming eco-village and learned how to live in harmony with the land. The transformative effect of the mountain experience inspired her artistically and her painting career blossomed. Over time, and through long conversations with her mother about current events, Jill’s creativity was channeled more and more into collaborative projects that spoke to making a difference in today’s most critical issues.

Judy could best be described as an undercover revolutionary. San Franciscans and New Yorkers might be surprised at the progressive thoughts and actions arising from the suburbs of Cleveland, OH. Judy comes from a family of entrepreneurs, and first exercised that muscle after retiring from 30 years of teaching art in a public high school. After Kerry’s defeat in the 2004 election, Judy found her community stuck in a spiritual and political numbness. While complaining once again to her daughter on the phone about this, Jill said, “Well, DO something about it!” Since that moment, Judy has been on a wild ride of creating products with a message- from The Ribbon Revolution, to I’m Organic, to WE ADD UP. For her, it was learning about how global warming was affecting wildlife (such as bird species disappearing in her region and polar bears drowning), that was the tipping point of deciding to take the issue head on.

Supported by a wonderful team of brilliant, creative, and passionate people, Judy and Jill embarked on the next adventure: WE ADD UP. We hope you enjoy participating in this project and we hope it inspires you to start a revolution in your hometown.