life sketch

Julie Andrés (Jools) studied graphic arts in Los Angeles (UCLA 1987-’88) with many of the city’s leading designers of the time, developing old-school illustration, typography, and layout skills. During this time she also studied watercolour and oil painting at private studios and participated in solo and group exhibitions in Los Angeles, Venice, and Marina del Rey, California.

Following a move to Seattle, she was contracted by a US publisher to design and illustrate a series of three books. While there, Julie also earned a degree in depth psychology and creative writing, which supported her primary career as a writer and editor.

Back home in Canada, she worked in media and publishing as a freelancer and for corporate and non-profit entities. Julie continues to work selectively on creative publishing projects and visual and written communications strategies.

During the pandemic she returned to her long-latent art practice and now works with acrylics and other media. She lives in Vancouver's Mount Pleasant.

Statement

"I grew up in wild country, first in the Ruby Mountains of northeastern Nevada, and later on the edge of British Columbia's Chilcotin Plateau, and throughout my life I've been obsessed with nature. I am now completely and happily urbanized and enjoy city trails and parks and make regular ventures into Vancouver's ambient coastal forests.

"Autumn leaves that gather at the edges of rain-filled ponds and puddles particularly fascinate me. The sky and trees cradle them with their watery reflections, and they eventually sink and become the very mud below. I explore this restructuring with paint, journeying with the leaves as they pass from the sky to the mud.

“I endeavour to capture a sense of suspended time yet ephemeral seasonality in this inquiry.

"I am grateful to live and work on the unceded traditional territory of the  xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations."