About The Artist

A Native of Colorado, Julie Keith is constantly inspired by all facets of life and expression.

Art in all its mediums has always been an integral force in her creative and visual voice.

An MFA in Printmaking, recipient of many awards and grants, she envelopes the viewer with transcendent images in fragile subtle layers, diverse pigments, and or botanical matter on receptive planes.

Her latest works incorporate light. “I’m drawn to illumination in my work. A universal and prevalent symbol; in its physical state it is color, shape, depth, sense of movement, shift, change. In deeper meaning, light is intelligence, transcendence, Love. “My art is an expression of a visual search for the divine.”

-Julie Keith

WHAT IF……………. What happens when we take what is in our immediate environment, our everyday, and incorporate it into an image? For the longest time, I have wanted to work with natural dyes from plants, and like everyone else my schedule is crazy busy so it’s just one more thing to add to the list of things I want to try.

In a more recent daily ritual, I began juicing because it makes me feel absolutely amazing and awake, and though I dearly love buttery toast or potatoes, I find I want to nap whenever I eat them.

In the process, of course I notice all the beautiful colors from the pulp. Each juiced vegetable has such an intense rich color that bleeds onto the cutting board leaving organic shapes of striated pigment in pools as I section small enough pieces to fit in the juicer. And, it is then that I think to myself,“ This is so beautiful on the cutting board, WHAT IF I take the pulp and put on paper?”

The paper I chose to put the pulp on, is a pre-existing image that I didn’t care for. These types of images are perfect to work from because they can only get worse ….or better. Some of my best works of art have come from pieces that I thought were going nowhere or failed, but I kept them to study, and try out processes without the fear of ruining them- More to come on this very important subject-

The image has been taped to a board, and the writing you see on the right side , is a brief description of the solar process for that particular image. This is incredibly important too-keeping a brief description of what you do to an image, allows you to repeat or not repeat a process. The tape also allows the print to dry perfectly flat. In this case the vegetables are a wet medium, and the paper will stay flat rather than buckle from the moister-Brilliant!

I put a layer of parchment paper, tempered glass on top, added the weight of two full boxes on top of that so the juice from the pulp gets pressed against the paper, and I wait…….

Stay tuned tomorrow for the big WHAT IF reveal. Will it be a beautiful image or a really big mess to clean up? Either way, the anticipation is a gift waiting to be opened!