Julie Rist

Artist’s Statement

We search our past to uncover some deeper, innate meaning in our present lives and future, asking How can I know where I’m going if I don’t know where I’ve been? As ancient images evoke our humanity, the weathering reminds us that were are not above but merely a part of nature – the ultimate Great Creator.Even in the faces I paint, I focus on that connection through the eyes, evoking the ancient, ageless soul for a hint of the story it has to tell. My abstracts and surreal fantasies are meditations on the ephemeral quality of that connection, revealing the beauty in the chaos.Regardless of the physical medium I am using at the time (pastels, clay, etc.), my primary medium is always emotion, and my primary language is color; form and subject are dialects. The left side of my brain tends to find itself on hold when I am making art

About Pastels
I am a purist. My original paintings are created using the medium of pastels. Pastels are the purest form of pigmented media. All varieties of painting use similar pigments. The main difference among them is the medium used to carry the pigment. Pastels incorporate a binder and a minimum of clay (kaolin). This medium affects color the least, so the purity of color is clear and bright. Even oil paints cannot match the brilliant intensity and permanence of pastels. Pastels maintain their reflectivity and brilliance longer than oils. The kaolin contributes to the reflectivity of pastel paintings, and the colors are permanent and thus maintain their brilliance. There are no oils to darken them as with oil paint, and the colors will not fade, as with watercolors. Pastel portraits of the 1700s have come down to us as bright and fresh as the day they were painted.Although most people consider pastel to have begun approximately 300 years ago in France, colored chalks have been used for thousands of years such as in the cave paintings at Lascaux and even at Neanderthal burial sites reaching back 40,000 years.I use Unison Handmade Pastels. Machine-made pastels are mixed in large vats with pigments, gum, water and additives, forced through an extruder, chopped into lengths and sent to the drying operation. In the Unison handmade process, very little binder is used and the pigment hardly gets pressed at all; the sticks are rolled very lightly – and by hand.

Unison does not use a system of pure colors mixed with black and white to form tints, as in other pastel lines. The unique Unison color range was developed as a total spectrum, with each color developed independently. Unison’s unique color formulations contain only pure pigments in a cycle of related hues. The result is intense, vibrant color application not muddied by the blending of colors.

Education

Scottsdale Artists’ School, Scottsdale, AZ--Pastel Portraiture (juried workshops) – Harley Brown
Portraiture (oil and pastel) – Phil Beck

Visual Arts Center, Phoenix, AZ Ceramics – Lois Gress Neal

Pastel Painting -- Cathy McCormick

Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain --Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ

Public Art Workshop Shemer Art Center, Phoenix, AZ--Raku Ceramic Jewelry

Rio Salado Comm. College, Phoenix, AZ--Jewelry, Ceramics

University of Minnesota, Mpls., MN--Architecture, Design, Studio Arts

Colorado Women's College, Denver, CO--Design, Studio Arts

Exhibitions

14th Annual Vahki Exhibition--National juried presentation of contemporary crafts utilizing Japanese techniques. Galeria Mesa, Mesa, AZ.

Arizona Designer Craftsmen--Juried exhibition, Glendale Community College