JULIE HUGHES

Artist Statement

 

My relationship with natural forces is one of simultaneous childlike wonder and grown-up anxiety. The work that I make is centered on this relationship, and plays with the spaces between wake and dream, intuition and knowledge, solidity and fragility. Part theater and part blanket fort, these dream-like environments poke at the truth of our being in-the-world; the way we work things out for ourselves, navigate our experiences, and construct our own realities.

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Drawing inspiration from forces of nature – swarms, storm cells, eruptions – I render them in humble materials with the artistic sensibility of a children’s book. Fragmented, mutated forms are reconstructed into repetitive, almost obsessive conglomerations. Decorative and illustrative, the works reflect a desire to render harmless what is harmful.