Julie is an award winning artist, creating earth-inspired mosaic art since 2012. Her fascination with the history of mosaics led to her love for stone and smalti, a Venetian glass used in ancient mosaics throughout the Byzantine Era. These materials are hand cut with the traditional hammer and hardie, a tool used as far back as 400 BC.
For Julie, cutting into a piece of marble, slate, or other stone is a mystifying experience. There is a timelessness and subdued beauty to this material that speaks to us without words.
In our modern world, this primal simplicity invites connection back to our earth and our humanity. Through Julie’s work, she hopes to bring this sense of connection into the heart of the viewer.
“There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.”
Anais Nin
My Creative Process
My work often begins with a spontaneous, free-form approach. This approach provides a sense of balance in my life. It is the perfect compliment to the other parts of me that need structure, planning, and a quest for certainty when navigating life’s challenges.
Each mosaic begins with a simple element, or seed of an idea. An interesting piece of stone, glass, or other material that inspires me, takes me down a path that usually ends somewhere completely unexpected.
Piece by piece, the journey is full of risk-taking, uncertainty, and love. It is the “yin to my yang”, and means more to me than the end result.
Julie Christmann
Education
BA, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
-“Creating Contrast Without Color” with Toyoharu Kii, Chicago Mosaic School (CMS)
-“Hammer and Hardie Fundamentals” with Casey Van Loon, CMS
-“Drawing for Mosaics” with Sue Coombs, Casey Van Loon, Martha Crandall, CMS
-Floor Mosaic Technique with Luciana Notturni, Ravenna, Italy
-Mosaics with Jackie Slone, Baker Hunt Art and Cultural Center
-“Andamento, The Language of Mosaic” course with Anabella Wewer
-“Creating Substrates for Mosaics” course with Tami Macala
-“Intuitive Andamento” course with Rachel Sager
-“Intuitive Composition” course with Rachel Sager
“Intuitive Malmischiato” course with Rachel Sager
-“Classical Andamento in Modern Mosaic” course with Annabella Wewer
-“Mosaic on Stone” course with Anne Marie Price
-“Vertical Installations for Mosaics” course with Tami Macala
-“Mosaic Mandala Design” course with Dianne Sonneberg
-“The Contemporary Direct Method” with Arianna Gallo
-“The Direct Ravenna Method” with Arianna Gallo
-“Contemporary Portraiture in Smalti and Picassiette” with Gila Rayberg
-“Slate Mosaic” with Rachel Davies
-“Shape, Direction and Flow” with Kelly Knickerbocker
Affiliations
-Professional Member, Society of American Mosaic Artists (SAMA)
-Instructor, Baker Hunt Art and Cultural Center
-Member, Stained Glass Society of America
-Member, Public Arts Network
-Aviatra Accelerators (2020 Cohort), Covington, KY
Awards/Exhibitions
-2024 Bellevue Art in the Park, 1st Place Award
-2024 Duveneck Art Show, Vox Populi (“Voice of the People”) Award, Covington, KY
-2023 Duveneck Art Show, Vox Populi (“Voice of the People”) Award, Covington, KY
-2023 Andamento Gallery Exhibition, Baltimore Maryland
-Featured Artist, The Official 2023 Kentucky Visitor’s Guide
-Juried Artist, 2023 Kentucky Crafted Program
-2022 Duveneck Art Show, 3rd Place Award, Covington, Kentucky
-Caza Sikes “One Nation Under Art” Exhibit, Cincinnati, Ohio
-2021 Art Affaire, Milford, Ohio
-2021 Artist Market, Society of American Mosaic Artists
-2019 Loveland Art Show, 2nd Place Award, Cincinnati, Ohio
-SOFA Chicago – “100 Moments in Mosaic” Exhibit at Navy Pier, 2017
-SAMA, American Mosaic Summit 2018, Boston, MA. “100 Moments in Mosaic” Exhibit
-Art Salon, SAMA American Mosaic Summit 2017, Detroit Michigan
-Art Salon, SAMA American Mosaic Summit 2019, Nashville TN.
-Art Salon, SAMA American Mosaic Summit 2021
-Baker Hunt Annual Art Show, Covington KY.
-Baker Hunt Holiday Art Show, Covington, KY.
Media
Kentucky Homes and Gardens Magazine – Featured Artist, December 2024 Issue
“Beauty in the Bluegrass”, The Official Kentucky Visitor’s Guide 2023, (Featured Artist)
“The Ruins Project – Red Dog, Hammers, and Hardies” by Rachel Sager, Rivers of Steel, (Featured)
“Embracing Uncertainty”, Grout Magazine, (British Association of Modern Mosaics), Winter 2020