JULIE ANDERSON MATHIAS

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

"I grew up in the Midwestern countryside. As a child I built forts in the woods and later as a teen made small balsa wood houses constructed to the last detail with tiny furniture. That early spatial thinking stayed with me throughout my life.

​

In college at Syracuse University, I studied interior architecture. I loved the creative challenges of each project. In painting classes, I experimented with new materials, surfaces, and unusual tools. At that time I discovered Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painters like Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler, who remain significant influences on my work.

When jobs were scarce during the Vietnam War, I created my own mural company to stay employed. The challenge was to bring color into spaces on a large scale for local businesses. Two of my proudest early projects were murals in historically underinvested neighborhoods in Joliet, Illinois, where there were no large scale murals at the time. One of these murals was 30 feet high and 60 feet long. Its execution required scaffolding, grids, and the careful transformation of smaller images into a much larger modular format on the building wall. The experience of planning and painting murals taught me many of the principles I use in my work today.

During that time at “Crazy Crow Mural Co” I dreamed of working one day at Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. This was the architecture firm responsible for many of our city’s striking skyscrapers and other notable buildings. That dream would eventually come true, and my training at SOM was formative to my discipline as a painter.

I have always been drawn to large works because of the opportunities they present for the experience of color and scale. Ultimately my paintings are the culmination of the takeaways from my childhood and my training as a muralist and interior architect.

When I begin with a blank, stretched raw canvas, I start with a sketch, a color study, and a plan, most often using a geometric grid to define the work. As in architecture, my paintings are planned and structured. The final result often moves beyond the parameters of what I first imagined.

Color is always the subject matter of my work. No matter who we are or where we live, we make color decisions every day. That is part of the art of being human.

I am continually moved by the many responses visitors have shared with me at art fairs, in online forums, and in galleries. Thank you for your curiosity." 

​

Julie Anderson Mathias