julie Farstad

artist statement

My artwork explores my passion for the native plants of the tallgrass prairie and acts of cultivation in the context of ecological crisis in mixed media studio artwork and community based painting projects. These paintings for Mother and… are composed of dramatic, emergent compositions of endangered native forbs on black backgrounds adorned with glitter, metallic paint and rhinestones. I began these paintings as theatrical elegies to vanishing species, using multiple material processes to suggest the diverse systems and relationships that are always active within the natural world and increasingly at risk with the loss of each member. As I worked on them, painting shadows upon the dark ground with the blackest paint I could find, I started to think about how looking down into the prairie is like looking up into the night sky. At first glance, you might see nothing. But of course, the longer you look, the more you see. Endlessly. In these works, vitality and entanglement are prioritized over traditional compositional resolution, in an attempt to bewilder the viewer and decenter the human perspective of the natural world. I like to imagine the tall flowerheads of the prairie and the terrifyingly distant stars gazing at one another, locked in a mysterious cosmic acknowledgement that transcends human perception.

ARTIST BIO

Julie Farstad is an artist and Professor of Painting and Social Practice at the Kansas City Art Institute. Her passion for native plants grew out of a desire to respond to the tragic effects of colonization in her neighborhood in Kansas City. She creates public facing artwork in her Flowers For Marlborough Project that confronts ecological blight by sharing the beauty and function of native plants through large scale paintings, free plant painting workshops, and giving away free native plant seedlings to the Marlborough community. Her studio paintings are represented by Sherry Leedy Gallery in Kansas City, MO and Zg Gallery in Chicago. In 2023, Julie was awarded the Missouri Prairie Foundation William A. Davit Prairie Communicator of the Year. Born and raised in Elmira, New York, Julie earned her BFA in Painting at the University of Notre Dame and her MFA in Painting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She lives and works in the Marlborough neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri with her husband and two sons.