On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about making and teaching art with my guest Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.
Based outside of Boston, Julie is a painter, printmaker, and collage artist who constructs vibrant compositions. Her artwork investigates the interplay of identity and perception, inviting viewers to take a longer look. Julie works in layers, both physically and metaphorically, exploring what is visible and what is concealed.
Passionate about connecting with and inspiring other artists, she shares her expertise through in-person workshops and her online classroom at MyArtPractice.com. Julie’s achievements include high-profile clients, multiple publications – including her book, “Carve Stamp Play” – and exhibits in New York City and Greater Boston. She is a graduate of Brown University.
I was thrilled to visit Julie’s studio in Watertown, Massachusetts to record this conversation in person.
This episode is sponsored by Craftsy.
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We started this conversation with Julie talking about where she grew up and what she was like as a kid. We talk about theater, which is something Julie studied as an undergrad at Brown. Julie lived in New York after graduation and worked in theater. Her visual art career began when she submitted some artwork to a magazine.
Julie is a self-taught artist, but she’s taken lots of classes and completed trainings offered by art materials suppliers including Ranger Ink and Golden, becoming a certified Golden Artist Educator in 2016. She explains the value she finds in these kinds of experiences.
Julie is also a devoted art educator and she shares her philosophy of encouraging creativity among adult students who attend her classes. Julie was the host of a PBS television show called Make It Artsy. She talks about how she got that opportunity and how it impacted her career as an artist. Julie and her mom have a podcast so we talk about that as well as Julie’s membership community. Julie is bi-racial and she explains how that identity has shaped her and informed who she is.
And, of course, I ask Julie to recommend great stuff she’s enjoying right now. Julie recommends:
- Golden GRIPR paint tube opener
- The Creative Act by Rick Rubin
- The Art Page-a-Day Gallery Calendar
Keep up with Julie on her website and on Instagram.
You focus on her podcast, which I’d been enjoying until it abruptly stopped months ago. I came to this article hoping to understand why that, along with her other regular YouTube posts, disappeared. It’s certainly worthwhile for artists to listen to her old podcasts, but more timely reportage would have been helpful.
Thank you for your comment. Julie does talk about the timing of her podcast episodes in the interview, as well as the content that she is creating for her membership program.