To tell the story behind my art, I would have to tell the story of many artists known and unknown. Most of the artists that I admire have shared the same influences. Cave paintings, Pre-Colombian art, and African art. Then on to the art of Jean Dubuffet because of his love for exploring textures and materials, for praising the graffiti of lovers in the early 1900's in Paris, and for admiring the scrawls of a child and recognizing that the uninhibited mark making of a child is intuitive and pure.I admire Jackson Pollock for those same reasons. I love Paul Klee and his Twitering Machine.I appreciate the graffiti, and the abstract writings of Jean Michele Basquiat. And I enjoy the invasive nature of keith Harings figures and the harmony that they brought to our underground trains and to our above ground streets. Today, I am a fan of Know Hope for his anthropomorphic imagery, David Choe for everything, the narrative of Os Gemos, and I cant name everyone because everyday I see something or someone else that overwhelms me, or I am introduced to a new environment or cause, or simply teaches me a new technique. And that is what I want to be as an artist and what I am as an artist.

The figures that inhabit my drawings are derived from plants, animals, and people.They are anthropomorphic figures with big human emotions. The narrative in my work is usually from childhood, the environment, or random issues in the media. My drawings have those heavy bold black lines that is found in graffiti, print making, and posters. At a first glance my paintings can seem loud, flat and simple. But if you investigate them further then you will see an intricate lace of other figures, patterns, playful gestures, and random lines and shapes that are similar to crop circles. My figures are beastly, but I soften there presence through my palette. .

Most of my paintings or drawings are made with the intent of showing them in a gallery setting. However, many of my figures in my work can be removed from my paintings and assembled in to the form of a wheat paste posters, stickers and stencils. I am not a "writer" or "tagger". I like being in control of my work and being able to put it up quickly..I do it because I am an artist. I love to paint. I want to put my work out there in any way possible. Anytime that I am allow to be in a gallery show, I always do a bunch of hand drawn stickers. The stickers are for the people that cant afford a painting, but they wan to buy some of my art. T-shirts printed in a limited edition is another way of giving people a one of a kind piece of art. I don't think that is "selling out" at all.

I hope that my work is received with harmony. I am more playful with drawing than anything else. Yet, there is always room for a cause, whether to challenge a war, an environmental issue, or anything in the media that catches my attention. The methods of street art come in handy when I feel the need to react to something that has happened in the world today. My favorite response is when another unknown artist communicates with my poster either by writing beside me or altering my image in a respectable way. I have had a few conversations through stickers with an unknown person.. It is kind of the equivalent of a note stuffed in a bottle and hurled in the ocean. That's the romance of art in all of its forms. We want to reach someone.

Julie Lopez Friel

Julielfriel@yahoo.com
20225 SW. 90th. Ave. Rd.
Miami, Fl. 33189
786-564-6587