Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Julie Chapman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Julie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
When I was in grade school – I wanted to be John James Audobon, experiencing and depicting our continent’s wildlife firsthand. But I’d only heard the “starving artist” meme, and since I like to eat, and I like science and math, I went to a good engineering school on scholarship. I then worked 18 years at Hewlett-Packard, and loved the fellowship of bright, driven technical types working towards a common purpose. As a computer engineer, I found programming creative in its own right…but all the while, I continued messing with art on the side (and selling things here and there).
I began to feel that if I spent my whole working life in engineering, I would regret not trying a career as an artist. Since I have a policy of “no regrets” (“do, or do not – there is no regret”, to misquote Yoda), I needed to devote effort to the art side of me. I began building up more gallery representation; after winning a major art award, I took the leap to full-time art.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I’ve been a professional fine artist since 2003, initially working in oils to create representational paintings. My subject matter has always been animals — specifically, the wildlife and horses of the American West.
Since I have a low tolerance for boredom and repetition, I’m always noodling around with various media, experiments, and other dilettantish activity. Around 2010 I picked up a piece of scratchboard, and the response to my trials in that medium was strong and gratifying. I used the medium to depict only the light-struck parts of my subjects, so that they were fragmented on the black board. As one gallerist of mine said, I gave scratchboard credibility as a fine-art medium.
About 8 or 9 years later I began itching to get back into oils, but I wanted to keep my ‘fragmented’ approach from scratchboard. After some months of experimentation, I found my way to my current “disrupted realism” technique. Again, the response has been strong and gratifying. Historically, wildlife art has been both rigidly representational (eg, duck-stamp art) and male-dominated; thankfully, there now seems to be both room and appetite for more voices and approaches to animal art.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
What it can do to support all entrepreneurs and those who wish to take risks: make healthcare affordable and consider a “minimum income” (an experiment that is being tried in multiple countries and locations). As a self-employed businessperson, I find my healthcare premiums and deductible shocking and eye-watering…basically, because of the cost, it’s catastrophic-only. If America could move away from tying healthcare to corporate employers and go to single-payer, like most other first-world countries, far more people would be able to ‘take the leap’ for their creative and entrepreneurial selves.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I have always donated a percentage of the sales of my work to support conservation organizations; I’ve been increasing that percentage as my sales have increased. It is imperative to me that I give back to Nature and wildlife for the inspiration I draw therefrom — and to do my best to preserve and protect our Earth and its ecosystems.
To that end, I have multiple ongoing series of works that address these concerns. For example, my “Keystone” series portrays wolves, usually black ones – often with hagiographic overtones – to highlight the ‘keystone’ role that wolves play in the ecosystem. (For more on this topic, please read the book or watch the documentary, “The Serengeti Rules”).
Contact Info:
- Website: www.JulieTChapman.com
- Instagram: julietchapmanartist
- Facebook: julietchapmanartist
Image Credits
All images copyright Julie T. Chapman