Julie Kirschenbaum

Paint what you see, not what you know. A simple phrase announced by my advisor during my first painting class. This phrase has become my mantra. I go out and I see, and life, it becomes focused and clear. One of the advantages of having this distance or perspective is the understanding that I can take what I see and make something new. It is the most intimate way I know of expressing myself to others. They look at my artwork, and it is my hope that they too will walk away seeing life and the world in a new way.



Looking back, I have always been artistic. I had to travel a long and challenging road before I came to believe in myself and my art. I have explored many paths to develop my talents and increase my sense of self. Although my road has taken many twists and turns, it is in living through those experiences that I draw the inspiration to continue to create. Along the way, I have been influenced and supported by family and friends, my immersion in such groups as The Goddess Temple and the YMCA has enriched my life with a community of spiritual and diverse individuals.



I am primarily a visual person, my imagination running on overdrive full of images and ideas which have yet to take form. Sometimes these images develop in my dreams, only to submerge themselves and resurface again when something jogs the memory. Sometimes these ideas take on flesh and a consciousness of their own demanding release, and I will spend hours lost in a canvas or behind my camera until my vision is complete. I draw my inspiration from the most unlikely of places. Sometimes all it takes is overhearing a powerful quote to inspire. One of my personal favorites was from a TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer “Love isn’t brains, children, it’s blood — blood screaming inside you to work its will.” That one quote inspired an entire series of drawings and paintings such as “Evangelica: The Torment”. I believe that my role as an artist is to act as a mirror to society and of the cultures in which we live. And through my work, express society’s pain and joy, yearnings and failings, and truth, even the ugly ones