Most of my pieces are from life and all are done in a moment, long or short. They are not preconceived. I push the suggestiveness of the forms, either in front of me or from my imagination, aiming at creating powerful, vital imagery while not losing the fragility of the moment. I am drawn to a gestural neo-expressionistic vocabulary of thin lines against big bold colored forms and strokes. Many of pieces begin with traditional materials from my home—cloth, thread, my mother's tea towel. Color is printed, sewn, glued, felted. Paint is applied with my hands, sticks, cardboard, makeup sponges, potatoes—anything, to achieve an irregularity and rawness of line. Recent pieces enact the classic dance between the immediacy of material surface and the revelation of content. At first the form and line show up as an end in itself, and then the object or figure reveals itself, sometimes only for a moment, before it retreats back into the physicality of being marks on paper or felt on bone.
I draw, paint and make things in my studio in the small town of Fairfax, in the San Francisco Bay Area. My art is influenced by my fascination for human gesture and my love for and experience in graphic design. I am currently Founding Partner and Creative Director of Ledyard Qvistgaard Design Office, a brand creation and package design, also in Fairfax.
Selected Exhibitions:
2008 Solo Exhibition, "DRAW" Recent Life Drawings, Smith Andersen North, San Anselmo, CA
2010 Group Exhibition, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
2011 Group Exhibition, Showing Up, Drawing Circus Invitational, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA, Curator Edward Stanton
2012 Group Exhibition, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
2017 Marin Open Studios, Fairfax, CA
2017 Group Exhibition, Marin Open Studios, Corte Madera, CA
2017 Group Exhibition, CHAOS!!! Ro2 Gallery, Dallas, TX
2018 Marin Open Studios, Fairfax, CA
2018 Vessel Gallery, Summer Sessions
Education:
Julia holds a BFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.
Drawing Circus, Richmond Art Center
Figure Drawing, Painting, College of Marin
Organized and hosted Edward Stanton’s Drawing Circus Events
Julia also taught for 2 years at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.