Today we’d like to introduce you to Julie Ann Stricklin.
Hi Julie Ann, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My artist life story spans many decades. I have always stayed in creative worlds. I work traditionally as well as digitally. I do not focus on one subject or media, I am interested in it all. My range is photo real, cartoon and artistic interpretive expression and Up-Cycling.to name a few.
Computers became popular 10 years after I graduated San Diego State, so I went back to school and received my digital certification at The Advertising Arts College. I am so glad I did that.
I have been able to work with computer graphic clients as well as traditional art clients. I have started playing with AI the way I played with digital graphics in the
‘90’s. initially I was afraid of computers because I thought they would replace traditional art. That same fear is happening with AI now.
I do not want to be afraid of AI, I want to be able to use it as a tool. So far it has been fun using to animate my traditional work.
For decades I have sold my work through shops and galleries. Due to shop & gallery closings and theft, I am starting to focus more on sales through online shops, custom orders and in demand sites.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Art is never a smooth road. It is a passion that a creative can not stop even if they want to. Creatives that put a hold on their creativity to focus on other life challenges quickly find out their life is missing an important component. The creative process makes them feel grounded and gives them purpose. As for me, my work is my meditation and it keeps me grounded and complete.
Working for clients on commissions or commercial projects when I was younger was difficult because I really went beyond normal boundaries to make clients happy. I would work until 3am as a norm. I get lost in my process and let the zone take over. People would tell me to shut it down, but I just loved the focus of working and making people happy.
As I have aged, I no longer push my eyes and stress myself with lack of sleep. I focus more on creating with joy for people who really appreciate, collect or are becoming interested in whatever I am working on.
I love Sharing my work in social media. I also love sharing my friends work because many of them do not share their creations and I think the world should celebrate them.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Since I work in so many ways, I will break down how I create digitally as well as traditionally.
Digitally I begins with a traditional sketch. I work through my ideas on paper then vector my illustrations or designs in Adobe Illustrator or I used Procreate on my iPad with my stylus. Sometime I use Photoshop, but I love the ease of drawing with a stylus over using a mouse.
I still have some of my commercial clients that just need simple graphic or photo manipulation for ad designs or print projects, those projects seem less creative and more administrative.
I LOVE creating videos and taking movies or pictures. I use just about any app or program I can get my hands on. My interest in AI has helped me to be able to create my own royalty free music for the movies. I enjoy using music by musicians who share their royalty free music so more people can hear their work.
I post on all the regular social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube
, but my largest following is on sites like CLAPPER. I have about 33k (and growing) followers on that site. I go under @HeyYouItsMe on Clapper, but JulieAnnStricklin on most of the other sites.
As for my fine art and illustrations, I have a dedicated area set up for my art. My materials are within arms reach and I keep projects flowing like a factory. I have a huge lazy Susan that enables me to place pieces that are drying away from my reach so they can dry between layers. I love to work in layers, but that means there is waiting. I work on many pieces at one time so there is always one that has dried.
I see everything as a canvas so I have glass, rocks, wood, paper, shells or objects I am up-cycling always ready.
I work in any medium. Acrylic, Watercolor, Oil. Within the last few years I started grabbing acrylic markers more and more.
I recently started creating ACEO’s and the acrylic markers work great on Art Card Editions and Originals (ACEO) They are small pieces of art that are purchased and trade like trading cards,
What were you like growing up?
I am a Texan, but lived in Illinois as well as California growing up, I would like to think I am the same as I was growing up.
I was always creating, painting and spending a lot of time alone with my interest of the day. My interests tended to flow, so there was always something I was working on or learning.
I have always had lots of great friends that tolerate my reclusive tendencies.
I have always loved nature and spent lot’s of time exploring the bayous of Texas, the seasons in Illinois or the beaches and mountains in California.
I have always had a diverse group of friends, all ages, races, sexes and everyone has their own life style and cultures. I have always learned a lot from the diversity of my friends interests and life styles. I am really happy my childhood was in an analog age and not this digital time.
I have always been open minded and tolerant even as a child.
I have always been an animal lover, so pets have been a large part of my life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/JulieAnnStricklin
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/JulieAnnStricklin
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/julie.stricklin?mibextid=wwXIfr
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julieannstricklin/
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/HeyitsMeJulie
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@julieannstricklin?si=OzBLViZBc0X7IvTN
- Yelp: https://yelp.to/Ks53X72cs5
- Other: https://clapperapp.com/HeyYouItsMe?is_invite=1&r=3PQqjL44Pr&c=in&m=em
