The Form of Poverty Painting

Julie Himel's work is about human experience. And in that theme, she looks closer, to the elements of that experience, to worlds lived and imagined, the spiritual and the emotional, memory and promise. Her study of space is rooted in the understanding of landscape as both an encounter and an image. It’s in the balancing act of grounding and departure—always looking for the light through the tangle of life. It’s in decay, not as destruction, but as catalyst: a signpost for renewal, growth and reclamation. And it’s in honesty, about creating a portrait of landscape as it is: something apprehended and unknowable. Paint is the medium she uses to formalize the possibility of a place—a place alive, mutable and shared, a character in our collective unconscious. Julie holds a Diploma of Fine art from Langara College in Vancouver, a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours Degree from York University, and a Graduate Diploma from Toronto School of Art. Her work can be found in public collections in Canada and the United States, and private collections internationally.