Q&A With Julianna Swaney

Victorian ladies and gents sport wings and beards of bees, and inhabit a world filled with enormous insects and fanciful woodland creatures. This is the strange and beautiful art of Julianna Swaney, a Portland, OR native who attended Maine College of Art and is currently featured in the Portland Museum of Art's 2009 Biennial. Julianna received the Biennial Purchase Prize, meaning that the PMA will add to its permanent collection her three works in the Biennial: Wolfgirl, Beebeard, and Central Park, March 6, 1890. I recently talked with Julianna about her hippie parents, varied inspirations, and favorite artists.

Jamie: Tell me a bit about your background.

Julianna: I've always been interested in art and took lots of classes growing up. My parents were kind of hippies and I was home schooled until 9th grade so I was free to take lots of art classes and had a lot of free time to explore outside and pursue subjects that really interested me. I was fortunate to go to a high school that also nurtured imagination and love of art and science. Actually growing up I always loved making art but wanted to be a scientist and study moss or whales or something like that. It wasn't until I started applying to colleges that I realized I wanted to go to art school. I got my BFA in printmaking at Maine College of Art in 2005.

Beebeard

Jamie: What inspires your work?

Julianna: So many things! Animals, fairy tales, folk tales and proverbs, Victorian clothing, forests, old folksongs, Russian animated films, lace, china patterns, antique postcards and trade cards, natural history museums, bees and beekeeping, and other artists. I think lots of bits and pieces make their way in.

Jamie: What types of media do you work in and why?

Julianna: I like to keep things simple and have lots of control so I've just been working with pencil and watercolor on paper for a while now. I also use a transfer technique for collage sometimes, and every now and then make prints with my little Gocco printer. Sometimes I get tired of working 2D and I have to work with embroidery or doll making for a while. It's refreshing to switch mediums and be less serious.

Spitting Feathers

Jamie: How has your work evolved throughout your career?

Julianna: I think it used to be much less illustrative. Right now I call myself an illustrator rather than an artist.

Jamie: Who are your favorite artists?

Julianna: It's a very mixed bag; Jan Van Eyke, Thomas Gainsborough, Joseph Cornell, Kiki Smith, Beatrix Potter, and more contemporary people like Julie Morstad, Rob Ryan, Evan B. Harris, Amy Earles, APAK, Betsy Walton, etc. etc.

Wolfgirl

Jamie: How excited are you to be included in the 2009 Biennial?

Julianna: Very. It's a big deal for me.

Jamie: Can you tell me about what you're working on now?

Julianna: Nothing too exciting right now. Coming right up I'm in a little mail art show, 'Wish You Were Here' At Tender Loving Empire, May 7th-31st. I got a little fancy and made and sent a shadow box through the mail.

I also was asked to do an illustration for an upcoming issue of Martha Stuart Weddings magazine, I think that will be included in the Summer issue.

Check out Julianna's Etsy shop at ohmycavalier.etsy.com, and her drawing blog at ohmycavalier.blogspot.com.