Julie Anne Danylewich is a Liverpool, Nova Scotia based artist who produces unique jewellery using elements of anodized metals and enamel with themes derived from abstracted and representational forms in nature.
Julie Anne comes from an artistic family with immediate members who create by drawing, painting and/or playing music including an older brother who is a professional jazz musician and composer. However, while completing her first university degree (a Bachelor of Arts from Dalhousie University), Julie Anne came to the realization that she belonged in art school. Accordingly, she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2000.
While Julie Anne pursues her craft for the love of it, she was thrilled in 2001 to achieve her first sale of a sculptural piece - a five inch tall item that represented "Pixie Cups", a small Nova Scotia lichen.
“Working at the Museum of Natural History had a profound influence on my work. It was there I began studying forms found in nature - from minute lichen to enormous whale bones” says Julie Anne. “I was drawn to metal as my medium due to its extreme range of tactile and visual qualities.”
While Julie Anne has clearly identified her own voice, she is always drawing inspiration from others having recently discovered enameled jewellery and folded vessels respectively produced by Linda Darty and Kate Cathey. She also relishes the highly textured sea life jewellery of John Paul Miller and the folded jewellery of Charles Lewton-Brain noting that her studies of the Arts and Craft movement heavily influenced the direction in which Julie Anne has taken her work.
Additional influences include the textile technique jewellery of Arline Fisch and the vessel forms of Lois Betteridge who offered a workshop at NSCAD that Julie Anne had the privilege of attending and whom she credits for an advanced understanding of how to fabricate many of the forms she uses in her work.
“Weaving and knitting fine wires can produce beautifully delicate, flexible pieces, enamel, gemstones, and anodizing techniques provide colour, and fabricating can transform a sheet of metal into a fabulous sculptural and functional object” adds Julie Anne. “I am currently producing a series of enameled bowls in addition to my jewellery”.
Julie Anne’s favorite charities include the Nova Scotia AIDS Coalition and the Nova Scotia Nature Trust.
