Julie O: Arts Editor
Julie hails from a coastal windswept mining town somewhere in the north where she could be found aged 5 stitching uniforms for the MOD while simultaneously composing the pieces of her life ahead in perfect timing with the rhythm of the sewing machines.
The paths from the North often lead to somewhere and Julie spent considerable years following her factory life in the north by living on a Greek island. Absorbing the way of life, the characters, landscapes and sense of physical freedoms while immersed in those landscapes fuelled the sculptural ideas awaiting future realisation.
This industrious platform of the northern coast has often been the food for Julie's work weaving stories, sculptural installations, performance and any other trinket or Gem you would like to throw in the pot.
Julie's performance, sculptural work and installations have been produced and shown in the UK and internationally with pieces which include: foxes on a city break in 'A foxes day out' 2000, a re-working biblical content for travelling sculptures in 'The three kings' 2005, public art pieces such as 'Cutting the Mustard 1998' and durational performance about the secret love life of politicians such as 'The Enemy Within; a love story' 2007.
Julie has produced work in participatory fashion in communities, led project work in educational settings, wrote and performed for group and solo performance events, and even produced the occasional beautiful design for churches.
Julies work feeds from a bank of memory rich with cultural habit, oddities, rhythms and dips in the peculiarities of our community. Julie transfers this close scrutiny of folk and places to all settings, capturing their essence, mixing it up with relevant detritus and transporting it into a new identity.
Through the sifting and sorting process, snippets of information emerge, are collated, moved around, prodded, discarded, found again and then will be assembled further down the production line and presented as an unfinished/finished/unfinished piece.