Collection: Julie Zahn

Bio

Painter and printmaker Julie Zahn was raised in Bethesda, Maryland. Her mother, artist Ann Zahn, operated a professional printmaking studio. After college, Julie spent several years in a countryside town in Japan painting landscapes and still-lifes. After returning to the States, she enrolled in the 4-year Certificate program at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She was awarded a travel scholarship upon graduation and spent a year in Kyoto working with an antique screen restorer. Toward the end of her stay there, she discovered katazome or Japanese stencil dyeing, a paste-resist technique traditionally used for textiles. Attracted by its painterly quality, she adapted it to paper using acrylics and pigments with gojiru, a soybean binder, creating paintings with a printmaking element. She uses katazome, woodcut and painting to create her distinct, recognizable work. Her studio is in East Mt. Airy and she exhibits regularly in Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

Statement

I have been working to create a natural oasis on my urban property for many years. My surroundings permeate my work and I use images from what I see or imagine might be there. I have also painted landscapes for many years. But the garden, which I walk through to get to my studio, is my most constant and immediate source of inspiration: the way the pathways meet the rocks, plants finding their way through the metal gates, the ever-changing light and weather, these impressions all feed my visual compositions. Birds entered my work unexpectedly a few years ago. I needed a wedding gift for my brother whose hobby is birdwatching. With their arresting poses, energy and antics, birds provided everything I want in my work: drama, design, beauty. They immediately became a favorite subject.