Arts In Rhode Island: May Featured Member

May Featured Member - Julie Beck

by Unknown

Julie Beck is our intrepid Arts in RI Street Team leader, and a talented painter. Her connection with history and her use of color is stunning. Visit her shop here.

juliebcreative

DB: Give us a little background on yourself.

JB: I grew up in a small town on the Erie Canal. I lived in Rochester, New York until I finally made my escape to the wonderful place I had come to know as the greatest place on earth...Rhode Island (I didn't get out much as a kid). I have a degree in math which was of no use to me and was valedictorian in college. Now I am a motion graphics designer and graphic artist as my day job.

DB: When did you first become interested in your art form?

JB: In high school I made my first painting in art class, and it was horribly cheesy. It was a painting of a naked chick standing on the earth with horrible butterfly wings and dripping clouds all around. Man, I was so cutting edge back then. In college I continued to paint, but it wasn't until 2005 that I really found my style. Pale Earth was my first painting that I was 100% happy with and proud to hang up. That is when I consider the real start to my professional painting
career.

DB: What inspires you?

JB: Tons of things...mostly books I've read, camping lanterns, flea markets, antique shops and old photos, anything nostalgic or abandoned, animals...the list goes on.

DB: Does living in Rhode Island influence your work in any way?

JB: Absolutely! My series titled "Chubby" is based on antique Rhode Island photographs. I love the sense of community and small-town feel the state has.

DB: What techniques do you use the most in your work?

JB: My technique, honestly, is completely wrong. I don't follow any of the "rules" of painting. The way I paint is probably more time consuming and backwards than it should be...but once I start taking a class to learn the right way, I get impatient and annoyed and I just revert back to doing things my way. I'm such a painting-rebel.

DB: What do you find most challenging in your work?

JB: Finding time to actually paint. It's not easy having a full time job, a dog, and a husband who works in Boston...plus trying find time to dedicate to painting. I need to have at least 2 or 3 hours to dedicate to painting to really get anything done. I prefer to have like 5 or 6 hours at a time.

DB: How did you find Etsy?

JB: Harmony brought it up to me I think. I've been hooked ever since.

DB: Apart from your Etsy work, what do you do?

JB: Collect art supplies apparently! I am a Mac-nerd...I love my laptop and will be getting
a new one soon...hopefully. Lately, I have been playing a lot of Mario-Kart on the Wii...it's for
inspiration, I swear!

DB: What's your favorite place in Rhode Island?

JB: It's a cross between Colt State Park in Bristol, and Little Falls in Cranston. My husband and I met at RWU and we used to go to the park on the weekends when it was nice out. Little Falls is where we now go every saturday or sunday to get our tea and low-carb bagels and read the newspaper. It's the greatest little cafe in the world.

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