Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

Pulling inspiration from my daily life, I’m interested in connecting and contrasting disparate elements and techniques to create bold artwork filled with line, shape, and color. Perhaps it’s because I’m biracial, but I’ve always been drawn to explore the places where divergent objects come together. How can I, as an artist, visually unify disparate elements? I love taking tiny bits of this and tiny bits of that to make something complete. The sum truly is greater than the parts. I work in layers – both physically and metaphorically. Each layer expresses different emotions or meanings. To me, layers symbolize the complex nature of people — what’s visible and concealed. Like geological formations, my creative process involves building and excavating in order to reveal compelling visual juxtapositions. Despite the initial boldness, my work contains concealed details, prompting viewers beyond first impressions. Over the years I have worked in many different mediums and formats. I find the cross-pollination to be enormously stimulating and exciting.