May Display Window: Juliana Laury

I'm Juliana, and I'm an artist mother to three little boys, balancing home life in Pottstown and studio life in Phoenixville, PA. I’ve had my space on the 4th floor of The Upstairs Studio since July 2019, and it’s my sanctuary! I began my work there creating digital paintings which were carefully crafted in Photoshop one layer at a time, and had those pieces on display at Steel City Coffeehouse as well as hosting a solo exhibition titled “MaMa” at Paragon in February 2020. Then, when COVID and the birth of our third child forced me to work from home for 7 months, I adapted a new art practice by pouring encaustic wax into hoops and vintage frames and designing ephemeral compositions with various preserved botanicals. I was a contributing artist in the January 2021 exhibition RE:create, and I am currently working on my first novel and a corresponding podcast titled “Flow” that follows the behind the scenes process of diving into this new art form.

An Excerpt from Juliana’s Interview with the PXV Art Mag, Spring 2021

How does being a writer influence you as an artist?

I have always used my skills as a writer to explain and discuss my art. I have been an artist for my entire life, and for all of that time the biggest compliment I received was how the words I paired with my work added to the viewer or collector’s connection to and appreciation of it. 

How does being an artist influence you as a writer?

I often turn to visual art to jumpstart my creative brain. The change of action, of getting out of my seat and feeling my hands make something new creates a multisensory experience that elevates my mind and allows me to better access my flow state. in both my writing and visual art, I am creating a world of my own, a world that might not exist naturally, but is an immortalized world nonetheless.

Was there a time when you thought these two parts of you could not coexist? How did you walk though that?

The short answer? My Therapist.

But truthfully, taking time for deep self examination is how we walk through all of our struggles and doubts and come out on the other end more self assured than ever. Yes, I still struggle with the multiple parts of myself that all exist. Holding space for the various versions of yourself is hard work. Due to the limitations of how we take up space and experience time as a human being, we can logically only do one thing at a time. And so, we doubt multifaceted selves by default. I am many things to many people, including myself, so it’s easy to be confused about what you are not just that day but that moment. I wake up as my mother self, I might move into my writing self, then my artist self, only to return to my wife and mother self again just hours later. I am constantly giving myself permission to be the self that I and my family needs me to be at that time, be fully THAT, and know that it will change in an hour or a day or a week. A clearer, and more practical way to answer that question, is to say that I often give myself set “days” to explore one part at a time, so that I’m not overwhelmed or disappointed in myself. For example, my kids are all babies still, aged 3.5, 2, and 9 months respectively. So Friday through Monday, I’m mom. I have full day childcare Tuesday through Thursday, so one day I might focus solely on my novel, the next on my encaustic artwork, and the third I leave as a “see how I feel” day based on what I accomplished the previous two days. That system has worked well in the short time it’s been in place. 

What advice would you give to someone who is balancing multiple identities as an artist? 

Listen to every kind of creative that you can, and you will see you are not alone. Composers, directors, actors, poets, scientists, painters, you name it! We all contain multitudes. As humans, and as creative beings. All art forms cross reference one another, and it is in embracing how the parts become a whole that we can come to understand the symphony of life. 

Lastly, accept that balance is an ever moving target. As soon as you figure out what works for you, life circumstances or desires may change, and that is good and necessary. Always pay attention to what is calling to you. You’re never letting anyone down by yourself if you don’t. When your work is dynamic, your life is dynamic. Embrace that!