ARTIST STATEMENT
In the midst of the pandemic, I began portraits of my colleagues where I teach in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, CA. I have the profound good fortune to teach 400 elementary students visual art, and I work with an amazing group of educators. These portraits are of mothers I work with and their children, who I also have been lucky enough to teach. Until very recently, I worked with Rena Mixon when she was the Dean of Students, and she is one of the most gorgeous women I have ever met. I’m drawing from the rich history of portrait painting while playfully exploring patterns inspired by the subject’s favorite flower, daisies. Creating a likeness is essential to me but also seeing the beauty in these women and the extraordinary beauty of paint made flesh. I’ve explored oils on clayboard in these portrait works, with attention to draftsmanship, exquisitely colored and rich with emotion.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Julianne Wallace Sterling is a Bay Area painter born in Southern California. She graduated from UC Riverside with a BS in Economics and pursued post-baccalaureate studies in art at San Francisco State. Her work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum St Louis, MO, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery in Boston, Dacia Gallery in New York, A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art in Novato and Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland. She was awarded first prize at Marin Museum of Contemporary Art’s 2010 Juried Annual. Her work has been written about in the San Francisco Chronicle, art ltd., the East Bay Express, 7×7, and the Art in New England. Ms. Sterling’s work was selected for A.I.R. Gallery’s 9th Biennial in Brooklyn in March 2011.
© Julianne Wallace Sterling