Julie Higgins - Biography
I was born and raised in Hutchinson, Kansas, a medium-sized Midwest community built on salt mines, farming and the bible belt. It is a landscape of wide open space populated by conservative salt of the earth folk.s a ceramic major and later in sculpture and painting. I was deeply influenced by the figure and sensual organic form, which seem to provide endless inspiration to me.
Moving to the Skagit Valley region of Washington State, I found pastels were ideally suited for exploring the color and sensual compositions of the region’s landscape. Pastels offered a more immediate study of form and color. Working primarily with soft pastel due to its vibrant color and tactile quality, the process is very intuitive, with color, form, imagery and symbols often leading from one to the next. My art evolved into a language of symbols by telling a story using the figure and landscape to create sensual compositions of bold color. I later moved to the coastal community of Mendocino, California, a very beautiful rural area. My travels to and from my home take me from the ocean through redwoods to vineyards and rolling hills, continually inspiring me to illustrate symbolically this sensual environment.
