Julie Robitaille: 1st Place Winner

Winner of the Spring 2011 Competition

COLORING OUTSIDE THE LINES

outsider art that goes beyond the mainstream art culture, explores issues in today's world from a different perspective or reveals what is possible when you just don't stay inside the lines.

3RD TREATMENT

oil on canvas

18 x 24in
nfs

artist statement

I am a self-taught artist whose objective is to reveal aspects of the human psyche through my paintings. I have worked in assemblage, tile, watercolor and acrylics, and am currently working in oils, which offer a great deal of flexibility and time in which to allow the organic revelation of layers and meaning through the process of creating the piece.

I paint what interests me – human emotions and the psyche, nature as reflected by animals. I see color and form through a personal prism, let it fly and hope that others will recognize something in the paintings that resonates or stirs up questions.

"3"^rd Treatment" comes directly out of my experience of undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, although this is not a self-portrait. Five years after the end of treatment I decided I wanted to try to clarify for myself and express what that journey had been like. Once I opened the door to it, the painting emerged organically, even as it brought up difficult emotional and intellectual reactions I hadn’t delved into before.

The title refers to the first treatment you have after you’ve lost all your hair; doctors have pretty much narrowed the hair loss time down to a certain day (in my case it was day seventeen). I wanted the painting to lack any specific attitude such as anger or terror that might automatically be imagined with a cancer diagnosis and this stripping away of vanity and shields, to produce responses that would be visceral and immediate.

I feel this fits into the theme of coloring outside the lines because this is difficult, uncomfortable subject matter that is usually kept hidden. "3^rd Treatment" isn’t intended to shock, but to try to shed some light on this particular reality.

bio

Julie Robatialle was born and raised in Los Angeles and grew up primarily involved with words, starting with writing poetry at age seven and eventually earning a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature. She has worked as a story analyst and story editor for film studios, written for television, had novelizations based on tv series and feature films and two original novels published.

She is a self-taught artist and has worked in acrylics, watercolors and assemblage for years; three years ago she began classes in oil painting, a discipline she wanted to learn from the ground up with guidance rather than relying on her own instincts. She has never exhibited her works; in fact, this is the first competition she has ever entered.

julie robitaille

palm desert, california [USA]

jrrobitaille@gmail.com

ArtSceneToday Q&A

Q: Where do you see yourself in the art scene today?

A: I would like to find a community that fits, but at the moment I don’t consider myself a part of the art scene at all. I suppose that makes me either a newcomer or an outsider. I prefer outsider even if my work doesn’t fit neatly into the contemporary definition of outsider art.

Q: What is in your inspiration?

A: My inspiration is lifelong curiosity about the human psyche, focusing mostly on what is hidden from view - sad or dark - and leaning heavily towards the psychological and emotional, on what is below the surface rather than what is on the surface. I’m fascinated by what can be told through a painting in much the same way as what can be revealed through characters in stories. My happier inspiration comes from animals, whose paintings reflect just as much character as the humans, but in a way that seems more pure and direct.

Q: What are your challenges?

A: I constantly challenge myself to improve and integrate fundamental painting techniques so that I am free to use interpretation without being deterred by struggling with what should be, and one day will be ingrained knowledge.

Q: How did you/do you choose your medium?

A: I’ve worked in a variety of media and felt most at home in the past with larger assemblage pieces. Growing up around several painters I was always both fascinated and intimidated by oils. When I got to a point in my life that allowed me the time to focus on learning oil, I fell in love with it and found that I felt completely at home with it.

Q: Which artist has influenced you the most?

A: It’s an interesting question because I think the artists who have influenced me the most psychologically are abstract expressionists like Rothko and Frankenthaler. But my technique has been most influenced by earlier expressionists like Jawlensky, Mueller and Kandinsky. I am always drawn to the art of the early to mid-20th century as it reflects an increasingly Freudian and Jungian world.

GO TO

COLORING OUTSIDE THE LINES

Exhibition Page

other works by the artist