the Mona Lisa Project
Julie Speed
Julie Speed was born in Chicago in 1951. After dropping out of Rhode Island School of Design at age 19, Speed spent her twenties moving around the country working pick-up jobs (house painter, horse trainer, ad writer, farm worker etc.) until moving to Texas in 1978 where she settled down and taught herself to paint. She switches back and forth regularly between oil painting, printmaking, mixed media boxes, collage, gouache and drawing, often combining disciplines. Always meticulously crafted, her work vacillates wildly between the ominous and the hilarious. She has had solo shows in dozens of galleries and museums, been published and reviewed extensively and a second large volume of her work, Speed, Art 2003-2009 published by the University of Texas has just been released. She lives and works in Marfa, Texas.
© Rino Pizzi 2010