We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Juliet Harrison. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Juliet below.
Alright, Juliet thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
The first big risk I took, after earning a BA in Psychology, was to go to get a MFA in photography years 9 years later. I had only ever taken one brief continuing ed class in B&W darkroom work. But I had been working in the administrative end of custom printing labs and had learned much from those amazing printers. I, along with my husband, found a school with a program that was completely suited to an older, self-directed artist. I look back at that gift of two years, as the turning point in my life. I have never earned a living as an artist, but I have continued to produce and evolve creatively ever since.
The second big risk came much more recently. I had a small studio gallery in a group complex where I showed my fine art photography, when I was diagnosed with cancer. After months of treatment, I had not produced any new work to show in that space. My lease was coming up for renewal. I had to decide what I was going to do with it. Before I got diagnosed, I had been photographing horses as my subject. I had not been able to get to horse events that year. I did not have the energy, stamina nor was I allowed to get out in crowds or in the sun. Having been part of the equine art world at that point, for many years, I asked some of the colleagues I had met, if they would let me try and sell their work in my little gallery space. I had many years of retail experience by then, in stores and online with my own work. I had never had my own business, but felt I needed to give myself the chance to see if I could make it work. 8 1/2 years later and in my own storefront, I am still representing some of those original artists who took the leap with me. And the Equis Art Gallery is going strong reaching new collectors and artists every day.
Juliet, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Formerly, most know for my Black and White equine photography. A fine art photographer first, I chose to photograph in a very modernist style. Using 35mm film and focusing on the elements of massing, subject in the frame, texture and contrast. When I began to photograph horses, it was in that same very non-traditional vein. For me it was not about taking pretty pictures of pretty horses. It was using the horse as a subject that offered a path to delving in to my own photographic voice. I did that for many years creating a series of images I called Equiscapes, that call to mind the modernist landscapes and nudes of many of the mid-20th century artists. I printed and sold my work as fine art gelatin silver prints.
In my Equis Art Gallery business, I represent over 30 artists from around the world, who feature the horse at their main subject. As with my own photographic work, these artists step outside of the traditional imagery often used with depicting horses. Unlike the horse and hound or cowboy art……most of the work I carry is more about the horse than the sport. The way the subject is cropped on the canvas……sometimes very abstracted, and yet all very much of the horse. I am proud to say that Equis is the only brick and mortar gallery of it’s kind in the world. What makes it unique also allows it to gather a very loyal audience online through social media and my website, and with in person visitors. What they see there is not being offered anywhere else.
Over the years, my own work has evolved and transformed as well. Unable, now to get to horse related events, due to needing to be in my gallery, I began to find the need to continue with a creative outlet. I also needed to use my visual voice to express my experience with cancer. I began by doing still life photographs using groupings of objects I had around and the natural light in the gallery. I had been collecting bones, antlers, skulls, shells and rusted metal things for years. Those objects which we associate with no longer having connection to their original use. I started to play with. Very quickly, I felt that I wanted to make some of the arrangements more permanent. And thus, my Sacred Offerings, assemblage sculpture came in to being. This work I do while in my gallery…….and have been for over 3 years now. Originally, the concept was to take these objects that had lost their original purpose, their original “life”, and to give them a new existence. A new identity. Like I felt I had been given after surviving my cancer. I see them as life affirming in the most sacred and reverential ways.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I think that for me, since I never tried to live off of the proceeds of my work, there are two aspects of being an artist that I find most important. The first being that through my art, I have consistently worked to please myself and to give a visual voice to the aspects of my life that are most important. Whether on an intellectual plane or an emotional one. Or probably, both at once. Creating is a passion…….and a way of communicating. Sometimes just to me. So I get stuff out of my head, so I myself can reflect back on it. And always to others, so they can “see” me too.
Secondly, it has been and continues to be, an amazing honor when people choose to spend their money on my work. As a collector myself, I know what that means. That my work touches others enough that they would want to live with it……especially the assemblage work….which can be challenging as it is not pretty in any conventional way. That is huge to me.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Growing up…….although I always had a camera and was always taking photographs, I would never have called myself an artist. I can not draw, paint or sculpt in any formal manner. In fact, I called myself the ultimate “art appreciator”, Many of my closest friends were writers, artists and musicians. I spent years going to museums and concerts…..and reading. I called photography, instant art and did not take it at all seriously. It was the opportunity to work with some amazing printers….to give them my negatives and see what, with my direction, they could produce with them. Living with and marrying an architect who was immersed in the creative world, gave me permission to think I might be able to do my own work. But I was not until I graduated with that MFA in Photography that I felt that I had permission to call myself an artist. I have never been prouder of myself than I was that day. Giving myself that gift was life changing.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.julietrharrisonartist.com & www.equisart.com
- Instagram: EquisArtGallery
- Facebook: Juliet R. Harrison, artist & Equis Art Gallery