Julie is a Minnesota native who meandered out west for 20 years, living in both Missoula, Montana, and on Revillagegido Island in Southeast Alaska. She has since found her way back to her roots, and is happy to call Duluth, MN home. Julie’s work as an artist encompasses both painting and ceramics, and she enjoys the balance that these two disciplines offer.
Her work as a landscape painter is strongly influenced by the American Tonalist painters of the late 19th century. Similar to these artists, Julie seeks to represent nature as poetry through capturing the mood and atmosphere of a place. Her aim is not necessarily to depict what a landscape is, but what it represents. With expressive brushstrokes and veils of color, Julie attempts to conjure up the visual place, as well as the ether that embraces it, and the weather that pushes through it. At the heart of Julie’s work is Nature, and her effort to represent its inner life with eager observation and reverence to its mystery and long-standing wisdom.
In addition to painting, Julie has worked as a ceramicist for many years. She threw her first pot at the age of 16, and still remembers the joy she felt at learning the hands-on process. She handcrafts functional stoneware on the potter’s wheel for her clay studio Wren Pottery, that she founded during her time in Alaska. Her work is directly inspired by the small wonders found among the wild landscapes where she has lived and traveled. Julie continuously seeks to represent the simple beauty of the natural world through the pieces that she creates, and wishes to communicate that through this timeless, functional art form.
Julie is also a mother of two wonderful children, Bowen and Elsa, and married to her supportive and outdoorsman husband Brian. She began her formal art education at the College of Visual Art in St. Paul, MN and finished her BA in Fine Arts from the University of Montana in 2004. She has since exhibited her work in Alaska, Montana, Minnesota, and Italy. She also ships her pottery around the world.
You can find many of Julie's original oil paintings and limited edition prints at Sivertson Gallery, located on the north shore of Lake Superior in Grand Marais, Minnesota
SIVERTSON GALLERY www.sivertson.com
Julie's stoneware pottery may be purchased on her online shop. To learn more, visit the links below.
WREN POTTERY www.wrenpottery.com
ETSY SHOP www.etsy.com/shop/wrenpottery