Julie Puma
Brought as a baby to England by well-traveled parents, Julie Puma spent her first fourteen years there with summers spent in her native Brooklyn. An interest in art wasn’t apparent in high school, but after graduating from Western Illinois State University, Julie went on to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago to achieve a Masters of Art in Art Therapy. Her passion for painting was kindled as she practiced art therapy while experiencing its healing powers for herself and deepening her own creative talent.
She earned a second Master’s degree in Fine Art in Visual Art with the Vermont College of Fine Art. Currently, Julie is Full Professor in the Foundations and Fine Arts Department at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in Denver. Julie’s work has been exhibited nationally and locally in several solo and collaborative shows since 1997. Prized by collectors, her drawings and paintings are personal and powerful, resonant and relevant contemporary realism.
MOTHER
Artist Statement
Having lost both my mother and sister to breast cancer (My mom when I was only six and my sister in 2000) I utilize my art practice to explore issues of loss, motherhood and grief. Throughout my life, the process of making art has been transformative and healing. After my mom died I experienced a period of about six years of memory loss. Inspired by old family photographs, I’ve been creating paintings where I’ve chosen to abstract and flatten the backgrounds; as memory lives in the undefined. After the birth of my daughter, I began to explore the subject of memory loss and motherhood more deeply. I find the subject of memory fascinating. In trying to understand my own memory loss during childhood, and its connection to trauma, I found that childhood Amnesia is not uncommon. Having lost my mother and being a mother creates a difficult parallel that I struggle to contend with. Knowing that the research around childhood amnesia exists, creates a context for my work.
What I Can and Cannot Remember, 2024