Julie Abijanac   www.julieabijanac.com

Julie Abijanac received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and BFA from CCAD. She currently is an Associate Professor teaching in the Contemporary Craft, Fine Arts, MFA and CORE FY programs at CCAD. Her professional practice outside of the educational community includes:  II International Textile Art Symposium: FORTRESS MAN at the Mark Rothko Center in Daugavpils, Latvia, 9 th & 8 th International Paper Triennial at the Musee du Charmey, Switzerland, FiberArt International 2013 (where she received the People’s Choice Award), and 68th Annual Ohio Exhibition 2012 (where she placed 1 st in Fiber/Textiles,). Julie is also a recipient of the Capelli d’Angeli Foundation 2013 Artist Grants for woman artist whose work is a response to having and coping with cancer.

The work of Julie Abijanac is a reflection of her personal struggle with and surviving cancer. The pieces range from relief to three-dimensional sculptures that explore the systematic development of cancer cell/cordycep metastasis and examines the relationship these organisms have with their host. Each piece depicts a shape quality or motif from specific field-stain specimens or cordyceps, which are then used in multiple iterations. Compositional aspects are portrayed with the use of these individual segments/shapes and subsequently fused together to create highly decorative modules.  With the use of recycled paper, fiber, wood, stone and beads, the fundamental elements of visual art are put to use including space, shape, texture, movement, and pattern. Close up, the three-dimensional decorative and textural qualities of these works are elegantly graceful, but also intricately complex, just as life itself is at once lush and beautiful in the face of an utterly unpredictable future. Julie aspires to create works that provide a connection between the viewer and the beauty found in the organic development of cellular growth found in a potentially deadly disease/parasite.