Julie Anne Greenberg
System XV Nicole: “Defied Forecasts by Steadily Organizing” (installation view), 2018, Mixed media Screenprint on cut and reassembled paper, 36 x 36 x 3 inches.
“I never quite know how the color will translate or how the patterns will appear, and the inconsistency is the most exciting.”
Julie Anne Greenberg is an artist living and working in Raleigh, North Carolina (USA). Julie’s approach to color is intuitive and her approach to printmaking is experimental. Her layered, paper relief works are created using screenprinting techniques through the exposure of natural textures such as sand, water, and other materials onto screens.
Julie also works with spray acrylic and pigment on printed paper, cut paper and constructed relief work. Currently, she is working on explorations of weather systems inspired by meteorological radar and based off handmade textures of sand and water raindrops.
Are there specific associations towards color in your work?
My paper storms are inspired by real life systems. I begin by studying the radar loops that are shared with the public of storm systems that are passing through. As I watch them move and twirl about the screen, I paint moments that I am most drawn to in preparatory sketches that form the basis of my larger works.
What I love most about the pixelated snippets of radar loops is that there are always moments and blips of color that stand out amongst an otherwise harmonious color palette. Whenever I feel like things are getting too complacent, I usually work in a blip of color that is a bit jarring or unexpected.
Where do you reside between technical and intuitive in your work as an artist using color?
Although the colors that I choose are inspired by the real-life storms in the radar loops that I study, I welcome spontaneity in the act of creating, and allow the artwork to take on a life of its own. This often means getting out of the way of what my mind thinks something should look like and focusing instead on visually listening to what the emerging work is trying to say.
After I screenprint raindrop textures onto painted paper, I cut around the resulting shapes, creating a color palette of paper to work with all at once. I approach the process of layering colors in a painterly way. The papers that are glued together in the beginning are the underpainting that gets overlapped by paper “brush strokes” that emerge as the process unfolds. Rather than obsessing about the perfect place to put each slice of paper, I lean into the intuitive desires that come to the surface as paper overlaps.
System IX Isaias: “Give us a little time and we'll get it all put back together” 2022, Mixed media Screenprint on cut and reassembled paper mounted on wall. Installed on 12.5 x 16 foot wall with 3-4 inches depth.
“Whenever I feel like things are getting too complacent, I usually work in a blip of color that is a bit jarring or unexpected.”
System IV: “Dolly NASA Satellite Gives a Hello” (detail) 12 x 12 inches. 2022. Mixed media Screenprint on cut and reassembled paper.
System IX– Hermine: “Labor Day Weekend Worry” 2017, Mixed media Screenprint on cut and reassembled paper on sculptured MDF, 44 x 37 x 3 inches.
How does the printmaking process itself relate to how you work with color?
Printmaking encourages me to be spontaneous and intuitive. I have always been drawn to the element of surprise that takes place when finally seeing the result of a hand pulled print.
My process of embedding textures on paper involves layers of screenprint, painting, and pigment. The resulting colors vary each time due to humidity, the layering of ink and several other factors. I never quite know how the color will translate or how the patterns will appear, and the inconsistency is the most exciting.
It forces me to react rather than to seize too much control. It allows me to avoid being obsessive about the idea of perfection or even editioning and embrace the unpredictable nature of not only storm systems, but also the unpredictable happenings of our own lives.