Jensen was born in Lamesa, Texas.^[3] When Jensen first became interested in glass, she began to create stained glass panels. She eventually recognized that painting would be less restrictive.^[4] She credits her undergraduate study in cultural and physical anthropology at the University of Texas (1971–1974) for many of the themes and recurring symbols in her work.^[4] Her early work features skeletons and fire,^[4] while snakes become important in later work. Jensen has said of her work, "My paintings are mystical – not very many things are."^[4]

Jensen is involved in a project replacing glass paintings, destroyed in an earthquake, in a 19th-century Buddhist temple in northwestern Thailand. These will depict the Vessantara and Siddhartha incarnations of Buddha. She was awarded a grant from the James H.W. Thompson Foundation in Bangkok in support of the project.^[5]

From 1980 to 1985, Jensen was involved with the Renaissance Glass Company in Austin, Texas, a studio for flat glass artists founded by Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend and Rodney Smith. There she experimented with a variety of painting techniques, including reverse glass painting.^[6]

Jensen has exhibited widely. Solo venues include eight exhibits with New York's Heller Gallery;^[1] the Galveston Arts Center; and the Houston Center for Contemporary Crafts. Group exhibitions include Glass Today: American Studio Glass from Cleveland Collections, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1997; Pilchuck Exhibition, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, 1996–1997; Gerald Peters Gallery in New York; the Smithsonian American Art Museum; Atlanta's High Museum; Tell Me a Story: Narrative Art in Clay and Glass, Eighth Triennale India, New Delhi, 1993;^[1] International Exposition of Sculpture Objects, and Functional Art: SOFA, Chicago, IL, 1996;^[1] Selections from The Chodorkoff Collection, The Detroit Institute of Arts, MI, 1991;^[1] and World Glass Now, The Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan, 1994.^[1]

A National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship recipient (1986),^[1] Jensen's works are in numerous public and private collections, including the Royal Ontario Museum,^[1] the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,^[1] The Corning Museum of Glass,^[1] McDonald's Corporate Art Collection,^[1] and the Washington Art Consortium. For eight years, Judy Jensen worked almost exclusively on commissions.

• Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.^[7]
• Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
• Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio
• Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York^[8]
• The David Jacob Chodorkoff Collection
• Detroit Institute of Arts
• Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin
• Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
• Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, Texas
• City of Austin Art in Public Places Offices, Austin, Texas
• McDonald's Corporate Collection, Chicago, Illinois
• SAFECO Corporate Collection, Seattle, Washington

• James H.W. Thompson Foundation Grant, 2013 (Thai foundation)
• Represented Austin/Bergstrom International Airport in MSN.com "Airports with the Best Art", 2009
• Curator's Award, Galveston Arts Center, 2007
• Best of Show, National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia, PA, 2004
• John H. Hauberg Fellowship Residency, Pilchuck Glass School, 2002
• Richard Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship nominee, San Francisco Art Institute, 2000
• Most Original Austin Artist, Michael Barnes, Arts Editor, Austin American-Statesman, 1997
• Juror, Art Kauai, The Kauai Museum of Art, Hawaii, 1996
• Juror's Award, Austin Museum of Art, Texas, 1996
• Louis Comfort Tiffany Award nominee, 1993
• National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship Grant, 1986
• Juror's Award, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA, 1985
• New Glass Reviews 19, 11, 8, 7, 6, & 5, annual competition documenting the 100 most innovative objects made in glass each year

• Judy Jensen: Feverish, 2002, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. OCLC Number: 51951219
• Sculpture, Glass, and American Museums, Martha Drexler Lynn, p. 166, University of Pennsylvania Press,2005. ISBN 0-8122-3896-6, ISBN 978-0-8122-3896-9
• International Glass Art, Richard Yelle, pp. 161–162, Schiffer, 2003. ISBN 0-7643-1834-9, ISBN 978-0-7643-1834-4
• Women Working in Glass, Lucartha Kohler, pp. 161–162. Schiffer Pub., 2003. ISBN 0-7643-1807-1, ISBN 978-0-7643-1807-8
• Glass Art from UrbanGlass, Richard Yelle, p. 109, Schiffer Pub., 2000. ISBN 0-7643-1116-6, ISBN 978-0-7643-1116-1
• Contemporary Glass, Susanne Frantz, p. 28, H.N. Abrams, 1989. ISBN 0-8109-1038-1, ISBN 978-0-8109-1038-6
• "Judy Jensen: Tableaux in Reverse", American Craft, p. 42–45, cover illustration, Oct/Nov '93
• "The Glass Canvas", Glass Art, Volume 4, # 6, pp. 4–7, cover illustration, 1989
• "Judy Jensen: Dream Spaces", D. Cutler, New Work, #34, pp. 12–17, cover illustration, 1989

• Artist's website
• Jensen at Askart.com
• Judy Jensen/Corning Museum of Glass Collections
• Judy Jensen/Smithsonian American Art Museum Collections