Julie’s interest in art and astronomy started
at an early age. As a young child, coloring was passion.
Hearing about Sputnik as a young child, following the US space
program from its inception and discovering astronomy in middle
school spurred her interests. Julie’s father took her
weekly to telescope making sessions where during middle school
she built a large telescope. (See
the full story here) In high school Julie discovered she had
a real love of art but did not pursue it due to commitments to
science and her first and only other career at the Lawrence
Berkeley National Lab (LBNL: www.LBL.gov) which she began as a
research technician in high school.
Julie drew casually throughout college,
during her career at LBNL and while raising a family. Her
work at the Lab turned to the business aspects of the
institution, writing contracts for LBNL’s collaborative research
and development with other research institutions and contracting
with the former Soviet States for the United States'
Initiative for Proliferation Prevention.. Though
fascinating, Julie missed the creativity she had discovered in
art and in 1998 began to draw again. She was encouraged by
inquiries made at a local framing shop when a customer came in
to have some of her art framed.
Julie and some of her liturgical banners
incorporating some of her space art.
Julie studied traditional media at the
Berkeley School of the Arts with Gwyneth Welch, Lien Truong and
Arngunnur Yr. She also had a love of astronomical imagery
but hadn’t considered pursuing space art until one day when she
saw a fantasy image drawn by her son, Ross, then in Jr. high
school. That was the catalyst. (Julie was actually a fan
of Dave Archer and owns several of his pieces!)
Julie in an EVA suit.
(The complete story lies solely
with Aldo Spadoni of the IAAA.)
Julie’s art can now been seen throughout the
United States and overseas. She has received numerous
awards and honors for both her astronomical art and her flowers.
She has had commissions from corporations and has had book
covers and web site art commissioned. Her work has been seen in
magazines such as the Mars Quarterly, Mercury, The Planetary
Report, in newspapers such as USA Today, on the web in dozens
locations, on TV, in books including Women of Space: Cool
Careers on the Final Frontier, and in a variety of commercial
and non-profit applications (Reno Film Festival, Ironstone
Vineyards, National Graves Disease Foundation, Healing Journeys,
Neighbors Without Borders, NAATPN) and in homes of art
enthusiasts. Julie’s art is also now seen in churches
across the US and abroad as banners and ministerial stoles which
has been a primary emphasis since 2005. It incorporates a
significant amount of her space art.
Julie is a member of the International
Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA: www.IAAA.org) Julie’s
style is what IAAA members have dubbed as "swirly" and though
based on actual phenomena, her work often expresses the emotion
of the magnificence of space rather than scientific
illustration.
After a thirty-three year career, Julie left
the Lab in 2003 to pursue her art full time. She and her
old loves are now inseparable. Julie now lives north of Sparks,
NV in the high desert along with her husband Curtis and enjoys
the assistance of her son and part-time art partner, Ross, and
watching her grandson Kale grow up.
