About Julie Fournier

nowrap="nowrap" About • Events • Mailing List • Contact Julie
juliekfournier@hotmail.com 248-545-5530

nowrap="nowrap"Industrial Design • Oil Paintings • Graphic Design • Pinstriping • Calligraphy

nowrap="nowrap"Painted Glassware • Painted Furniture • Signs & Murals • Mosaics • War Memorial • Contribute

About Julie Fournier

Born in Detroit in 1965, Julie Fournier's life demonstrates the popular notion of "suffering" to become an artist: she was an unwanted child, number six out of seven children in an abusive household. Her first few years were spent in leg braces to try and correct severe club feet. Julie also had a telltale distended stomach as a result of suffering from malnutrition due to severe neglect. She spent most of her time alone, drawing and coloring and showed her art talent early on, winning her first art prize in grade school - a giant Hershey chocolate bar for best drawing schoolwide. Julie was able to read at age three and because she was bored in school she became a behaviour problem refusing to do her schoolwork. Rather than be kept behind, her parents switched schools every other year, and by high school this forced Julie to forgo art classes with each new school�s curriculum, but this didn't stop her from developing her innate talent on her own. By the time she reached high school, she knew she would pursue a life in art. In her spare time, Julie would hang out in the art classrooms, learning what she could by watching other's work. Mark Arminski hired her to work at his Pontiac studio for a time around 1983, about the same time Julie enrolled at Wayne State at 18 yrs of age. She studied both drawing and psychology, but became pregnant and had to drop out after only one year. Her abusive husband isolated her from friends and family, but she continued to paint and evolve as an artist. In spite of being a classic textbook case of abused child turned promiscuous teenager, Julie found the strength to leave her abusive husband and point herself in a better direction. She struggled to pursue her education with no outside support, but she persisted: she enrolled at Lawrence Institute of Technology to study architecture. After her divorce, Julie subsequently married an old friend from high school, who pressured her to quit school and focus on raising her new child by him. Julie became involved in cub scouts, teaching arts to her den cubs. One of her cub's mother, Karen, suggested she try to sell her art at a local gallery and gift shop, which Julie did, with success. In 1997 Smiling Eyes Studio was born.

Julie started off selling simple painted Easter eggs at craft shows, local galleries and Hallmark stores. Her eggs quickly evolved and became more intricate resembling the style of Faberge. As Julie became involved with local galleries, she also began to sell painted furniture and mosaics. Her work was well known in the local community and she was introduced to fellow artists like Slaw and Greg Stephens, who managed the Scarab Club at the time. Greg was a large supporter of Julie�s efforts as an emerging artist and helped her get her first solo show at Traffic Jam and Snug Gallery where she sold two oil paintings, her first painting sale.

Her second husband filed for divorce after Julie went back to college in 2001. She struggled with poverty living in an infested apartment in the Cass Corridor but still achieved her lifelong goal: she graduated from Wayne State University in 2005. (Since she had already had some success as an artist, she didn't study art in college, instead she obtained a degree in Industrial Design with honors, Cum Laude.)

Neo Realism best describes Julie's style. Events in modern American culture that have impacted our lives and our relationships with each other influence Julie's work. Often overlooked aspects of daily life inspire her, as can be seen in the variety of media she uses to rediscover the banal or forgotten in all it's innate beauty. Known by many for her oil paintings, she does not confine herself to one discipline, considering herself to be a multi-media artist. Her graphite drawings isolate objects in minute detail, focusing attention on the intricate lines in a pair of blue jeans or textures of surfaces. By painting glassware, she utilizes the transparent vessel and, through a playful yet defined sprinkling of color and shape, turns the utilitarian form into a fuller sensual experience. Her stained glass mosaics and painted furniture artwork often involve found objects, bringing society's discards to center stage. The subjects she chooses for her oil paintings are taken from everyday life, challenging traditional notions of beauty, social class and human interaction.

Julie has been called "a reporter on modern life," seeing that which the crowd has passed by in it's haste to move on to the next sensation. Focusing on the missed opportunity, the bypassed alternative, the meaning and wonder working within subjects or moments, Julie's work is accessible by way of conveying what her artist's eye has seen, capturing moments and sensations and freezing them in time so they can be share . Ultimately, Julie's work focuses the viewer on relationships in the world around them.

Currently Julie is working full time as an artist, freelance designer and pinstriper. When not at her studio, Julie plays pool, wrenches on her classic Mustang, or pinstripes cars under the name "Junkyard Jules".

See an interview of Julie on Youtube.

Curriculum Vitae:

1997-present SmilingEyes Studio Detroit

Self - Employed Professional Studio Artist/Freelance Designer

Freelance Contract Jobs:

Web Mistress Russell Industrial Center,Detroit, MI
Muralist Continental Bike Shop, Hazel Park, MI
Design Director Blooms Essentials, New York, NY
Graphic/Web Designer JR Group, Detroit, MI
Graphic Designer Urban Authentic Sportswear Los Angeles, CA
Graphic Designer River'sEdge Financial, Franklin, MI
Graphic/Web Designer Axlerod Trailers, LLC, Franklin, MI
Package Designer Ringmaster Rubbing Oil, Inc., Detroit, MI
Art Director/Photographer Orient Express, Shelby Twp., MI
Industrial Designer David Lilenfeld, PC, Peachtree, GA

05/2005-09/2005 (laid off due to bankruptcy) BBi, Inc, Bloomfield Hills,MI

Industrial Designer

Education

09/01-05/05 Wayne State University Detroit, MI

*B.F.A. with major in Industrial Design

* Graduated Cum Laude with G.P.A. of 3.5

* Named to Dean's List with G.P.A. of 4.0

* Accepted to Gold Key National Honor Society 2001

Lawrence Institute of Technology Southfield, MI

*Undergraduate Architecture DegreeProgram

* Drafting skills / blueprints

* Produced scale appearance models

Professional Affiliations

IDSA, Detroit By Design, National Gold Key Honor Society, President of Lincoln Homeowners Society.

Exhibitions

Johanson Charles, "Hope inDespair: Detroit", Detroit, MI 5/08/2009-5/1/2009

Tangent Gallery, "Damned",Detroit, MI10/30&31/2008

River's Edge Gallery, "Primping,Pinups,Paintings and Ceramics", Wyandotte, MI,9/19/2008-11/15/2008

State of the Art, "The Art of Women by Women", Ferndale, MI 2008

Dirty Show, Detroit, MI 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008

Johanson Charles, "Primping",Detroit, MI, 05/05/2007 - 06/11/2007

Gallery 555, Detroit, MI, 01-02/2005

Natural Canvas Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI,01/23/2005-02/18/2005

Johanson Charles, "Television",Detroit,MI, 03/07/2003-03/31/2003 and 05/03/2002-5/24/2002

Fanclub Foundation for the Arts, "Caliente Tres", Pontiac, MI, part of GirleeDetroit Girlee Collective Exhibition, also *curated by Fournier, 08/24/2001

C-Pop Artist's Garden Party at HarmoniePark, Detroit, MI, 08/15/2001

Scarab Club, Detroit, MI, Paintin' in the Streets invitational exhibition,06/29/2001 - 07/29/2001

Maniscalco Gallery, Grosse Pointe, MI, part of Girlee Detroit Collectiveshow,03/27/2001 - 04/27/2001

C-Pop, Detroit, MI, Mosaic as part of Slaw show, 03/2001

Snug Gallery, Detroit, MI, 12/01/2000-01/29/20001

Pygmalion and Galatea Artisans Gallery,Toronto, Ontario, 10/14/2000-/04/2000

C-Pop Artist's Garden Party at the Whitney, Detroit, MI, 07/6/2000 - 07/07/2000

Majestic Cafe, Detroit, MI, 06/01/2000 - 07/3/2000

Biddle Gallery, Wyandotte, MI, 04/17/2000 - 05/11/2000

Wyland Gallery, Birmingham, MI, 06/1/1999 - 06/30/1999

Art Fairs

Arts Beats & Eats, Pontiac, MI

People's Arts Festival, Detroit, MI

Wyandotte Art Festival, Wyandotte, MI

Ferndale Art Festival, Ferndale, MI

Berkely Art Festival, Berkely, MI

Hamtramck Art Festival, Hamtramck, MI

Dally in The Alley, Detroit, MI

Fourth Street Art Fair, Detroit, MI

Jazzin on Jefferson, Detroit, MI

Venice Art Fair, St. Claire Shores, MI