Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia Fae Sanders.
Hi Julia Fae, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, let’s briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
My intentionality behind blurring the lines between life and art began in 2010 while studying Art History and Anthropology at the University of Utah. The Fluxus movement of the 1960s and 70s took my heart by storm. After years of a natural inclination towards the arts (poetry, drawing, painting, dance), I finally discovered why and why I love art! Where my joy for it truly lies. It wasn’t in the finished piece of a charcoaled person but in the feeling of the charcoal crumbling as I pushed it across the mildly toothy paper. It’s all in the joy, for the connections that light up my brain space when I hone in on what degree of hardness my charcoal should be to put down the effect I am after. It is in the seeing, the smelling, the feeling, the patience, the decisive necessity, and the being with myself through the stillness of devotion to the moment while I bring an artwork to life that I deeply love. Creating art brings our inner landscapes into intimacy with the material world, and that special place is where my oeuvre stems from. What are we doing here on this earth if not delving into the brilliant nuances of being in the material world? My work results from reveling in this divine container that creating artwork allows. When I revealed this core understanding of where my interests take root, my work shifted from what I now perceive as a skill-training period to embody a much more dynamic place. A place it continues to grow from. My art is a performance, a process; it explores the human condition and the varying mediums at play.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The smoothest part of the road has been knowing who I am. With my artistic priorities always in the lead, gleaming like the North Star, sending my attention up and forward, the road beneath my feet hasn’t always felt as bumpy as perhaps it has gotten. My biggest struggle has been the pervasive ripple effect of the government regulations that began in March 2020. At that time, I was based in Los Angeles and primarily developing work in the spaces of theaters. Due to many political bumps in the road, I could never bring my work back to the stage in California. Being in Texas has been good to me, but the evident shift in my experience and production as a creative explorer is undeniably gargantuan. The discord I feel with the world is an immense struggle I continue to work through. While bumpy roads never feel ideal, they also bring constraints that, ultimately, allow extraordinary things to come into being. I am excited about the body of work I am currently immersed in. Here in Texas, this series of colorful acrylic paintings have ample space to come alive through play, a play that is pure in its devotion to the medium.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My fluidity with various disciplines sets me the most apart from others. My performance art, oil paintings, acrylic paintings, watercolors, drawings, writing, Fluxus pieces, and mixed-media works all come from this same root of honoring the material world with presence and play. The varying facets of my creative oeuvre may look very different to a pedestrian. Still, each contributes to and exalts the same theme, and with this commonality grows a unique body of work entrenched in curiosity and resilience.
What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
There is a bar, and the bar is completing your work. Completing your work means getting it done and into the sphere of society to be experienced by entities beyond you. Figure out what your source of unyielding inspiration is. Learn not to question your impulses. To trust them and to show up for them. Make your art, showcase your art, and stand for your art. And let your art stand for you.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.juliafae.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliafae/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf4UW3B54_5lsARmRk8cAYw
- Other: https://juliafae.substack.com/
