Julia Lucey, creates engravings and aquatint that address the salvaje, the evolution of wildlife, its dissolution and the human attempt to manage it.
Creating beautiful and amazing images, he opts for the use of traditional techniques with which he explores human concepts, in addition to observing and scientifically knowing the natural world.
The American artist originally from Fairfax, California, studied graphic arts at the San Francisco Art Institute and is currently a resident at the Kala Art Institute.
Lucey, makes use of traditional engraving in direct reference to naturalistic engravers of the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries, categorizing and labeling the flora and fauna around him in etchings, engravings and lithographs.
Depicting local Northern California plants and animals, it often evokes the haunting sense of nature on hold.
And is that Julia Lucey's AnimalsThey are not necessarily dangerous. They are only partially hidden in the intricate foliage, attentive to the viewer and almost silent in the hope of being noticed.
In this way Julia intends to do a thoughtful reminder to learn and respect what lives around us and the wild and delicate structure of its ecosystems.
His work insists on giving voice to what has been relegated to the background in society in digital and concrete, for which he places elements and layers of the same engravings, or cuts sections of native flora and arranges them.
This is how his organized and decorative interpretations of the wild clean up what is untamed and unmanageable.
“My work has always been inspired by my love of being outdoors in wild places. It is not only the reassuring escape that it creates, but the curiosity and the desire to know what lives in each place, ”says the artist on her website.
Another interesting detail in Lucey's work is that her engravings refer to the natural history prints of artist/biologist cataloguers like Audubon.
By hand cutting each plant out of the paper and reassembling everything on the panel, he is able to create new worlds.