My creative process involves staying loose and having fun. So the first layers of my paintings are all about play and experimentation. My backgrounds generally consist of 3-4 layers (before I even think about adding a character). I love mixing together different supplies and colors, to see what happens. I allow myself to make mistakes and try new things. It loosens me up so that…

“I’ve always been an artist.” That’s what I said to the gallery owner when I went in to get a job. He laughed, looked at me and said, “Of course you have always been an artist.” I was in a serious slump then in my early 20’s. I’d graduated college with degrees in fine arts and journalism, and gotten a “dream” job at an arts…

Having a messy studio clouds my mind when I try to paint. I can never start a painting with a mess in my studio, yet I hate to clean up. So I have to make it easy on myself and keep my studio in what I call an organized mess. That means everything has its place in a box or bin and is very easy…

My painting process is all about staying loose and free. But for a while I was feeling like a perfectionist, especially when it came to painting eyes and faces. I needed to loosen up and have more fun with my artwork. So I put on my favorite music and danced while painting. That worked (for a little bit). I could let go in the background…

When I quit my job as an editorial assistant, I had no idea what to do next. I’d just come back from a life changing trip to West Africa and realized there was no way I could keep working in an office all day. So I moved back home to Wisconsin. A friend from high school happened to be in town. When we met for…

Lately my paintings have been inspired by fairytales. I spent some time earlier this year working on a writing project. I began creating my own fairytales to go along with my artwork and stories. Now with my new paintings, I’ve gone back to using lots of grounded earth tones, blues and burnt sienna, mixed with a bit more of that fairy world. My paintings and…

Growing up, everyone called me Julie. Juliette is my given name, but I didn’t start using it until my junior year of high school after a super inspiring trip to Melbourne, Australia. It was my first time in a big city by myself, let alone in a different country on my own. I went to the art museum, the zoo, the Queen Victoria Market and…

Art was the thing I loved to do growing up and in high school. But when I graduated college, I didn’t know how to make money from being creative. I felt like my creativity didn’t matter, so I stopped painting for more than ten years. I went to work as an editorial assistant at a newspaper, occasionally writing a music review or gallery feature, but…

My creative process mostly takes place at my home and studio on the middle of 10 acres of magical pine woods in the Wisconsin countryside. Every morning, I begin my day by sipping lemon water and journaling, followed by a big mug of black coffee. On days that I paint, I then head into the studio and work all day, pausing for lunch and a…

Mistakes always happen while I’m painting. I’ve dumped my water bucket accidentally on a face, ruining my perfect eyes, and had my neighbor’s dog run into my yard and spill black india ink all over a painting (these things happen to me all the time). It can be SO frustrating to make a mistake or to not be able to paint the idea just as…