Jessica Foster
Staff WriterJulia Morrill is an artist. An artist on canvas, on chairs, on paper, on boxes, on clothing, on fabric and on walls.
The Forest Lake woman, who has been creating since she was a child, lives in a world totally surrounded by and centered in art.
Walls of the house she shares with her husband are filled with canvases and framed art. Cupboard doors disappear and become works of art as their trim becomes frames and the center becomes a canvas of sorts for Morrillís art.
ìRight now itís all about this house and making it work,î she said. ìEverything gets a new spin. Even when I do something traditional it has a little spin on it.î
She has used art to create space, or the illusion of space in her home. Art has lent itself to decorating and whimsical yet practical purposes.
ìIíve always been making something. I use art for everything,î Morrill said, remembering when she was a youth of the 1960s and would paint flowers and vines on her blue jeans.
She remembers a crack in her bedroom wall. She took that crack and transformed it into a vine with leaves and flowers. She expected to get in trouble. She got praise.
ìIf you donít like something just grab a paint brush and it goes away,î Morrill said.
A recent collection of paintings features swirling, chaotic color with dishes and household appliances spinning in the midst.
The inspiration came from the stress of moving, packing up dishes and starting a new life.
ìIt just got to be kind of fun,î she said. ìNow that my hair is gray I can do anything I want.î
Sheís used kitchen tools for painting, too. It is not always the stroke of a brush which creates her work. Sometimes Morrill gets right into it and uses her hands to paint or spoons or table knivesówhatever works.
Morrill comes from a creative and productive family. Her husband, Doug enjoys photography. Her mother wrote a book. Her sister is a decorator. Her cousin is a songwriter.
ìItís pretty hard to do something unique or special in our family,î Morrill mused.
Her artwork was, and continues to be, encouraged by her family. She sold her first painting to her uncle for, what was then, the hefty amount of $5.
ìI bought art supplies with it,î Morrill said. As time went on, most of her profits have been used to purchase more art supplies. With the wall space in her home spoken for, she quit buying canvas years ago.
ìPeople started bringing them (canvases) to me,î she said. ìI donít have room for it any more.î
Over the years, Morrillís work has appeared in five magazines and she has written two books. She has fans of her work from near and far and there are those who have never heard of her.
She paints and creates no matter what.
ìArt sells or it doesnít. You might get a good price,î Morrill said. ìItís very hard to market yourself because people donít understand. Something can be worth nothing or hundreds of dollars.î
In the 1970s, her work was displayed in restaurants, banks and other businesses. But she got sick of schlepping her wares around town.
In her first art show, at the Signal Hills Shopping Center, the then teenager sold out of her work before the show was even half over. She has one of those paintings from that period hanging prominently in her living room.
It is a blue, yellow and white thickly painted floral.
Looking at that and at others she has painted recently, Morrill hesitates to name a favorite or say if she is better now than she was then. She is a different woman now, she explains. The creations cannot be compared.
ìThe girl you are at 16 or 17, youíre never going to be that person again,î she said.
For years, she has worked to bring art into the world and to introduce creative ways to others.
The artist hosts Creativi-Teas. The tea parties with a new spin have a variety of themes such as Agatha Christie tea parties where traditional English tea is served and Agatha Christie movies are watched.
There are even Star Trek themed tea parties, ìItís nice to know that somebody at some time thought there was some hope for the future,î she said of her love for the old Star Trek series.
And there are Chinese tea parties where guests paint china, drink Chinese tea and listen to Chinese music.
Whatever she does and wherever she does it, Morrill works to make her corner of the world a bit more interesting, a bit more colorful and the polar opposite of standard.
ìIím my own freak show,î she joked.
Top of Page
