Julie C Baer
Julie C Baer has painted for over 40 years. Much of her work has been inspired by nature. After studying for two years at Rhode Island School of Design and graduating from the New School for Social Research in NYC, she painted and exhibited full-time. In 2007, however, depression forced her to make a change, so she attended graduate school for education, earning a master’s from Harvard and doctorate from Northeastern University. For 15 years, she taught writing to students of all ages and backgrounds in higher education, workforce development, and community-based programs. The pandemic unexpectedly brought her back to making art.
Selected exhibitions: Art House Somerville, MA, solo exhibition; “Making Connections,” Atlantic Works Gallery, East Boston, MA; “The January Show”, Atlantic Works Gallery, East Boston, MA; “Unconnected Yet,” Bengal Bridge Boston; Fay Chandler Emerging Art Exhibition, City of Boston; International Exhibition on Animals in Art, Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine Library, Baton Rouge, LA; Roots: New Growth, Caroline S. Mark Gallery, Wausau, WI; 5th Animal, Art Show International Gallery Online, Talent Award; All Botanical 2022, Contemporary Art Gallery Online, First Place award; Women in Art, Las Lagunas Art Gallery, CA; On the Wing, Kavanagh Gallery, St. Charles, IL; Confluence, solo exhibition, Armory Center for the Arts Cafe, Somerville MA; San Fernando Valley Arts and Cultural Center; Artistonish Magazine ExhibiZone; Souls, Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center; Nature, Cambridge Center for Adult Education; Cambridge Health Alliance; Yeshiva University Museum, NY; Hebrew College; O’Neill Public Library, Cambridge MA; Moses Brown School, Providence, RI; Doylestown Library; Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center of Greater Boston; Bromfield Gallery; Honan-Allston Boston Public Library; and rotating loans of artwork to corporate clients of the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA.
Publications: Love Me Later, Bollix Books, 2005 and I Only Like What I Like, Bollix Books, 2003.
View her work at https://www.juliebaer.com/ or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jcbaer_natureart/
Artist statement
Julie Baer’s paintings reflect close attention to the biota in her natural environment, wherever she is, and the seasonal trajectory of its life cycles: budding, blooming, pollinating, fruiting, seeding, dying, renewal. The natural world is our collective home, family, heritage, and future, yet humans have caused irreparable habitat, resource, and species loss. Ecologists say native plant restoration is “nature’s best hope” for recreating biodiverse ecosystems that attract and support native pollinators and fauna. In her Rewilding series, Julie is painting (and planting) native plants, one species at a time. Collectively, this body reflects biodiversity, as her urban garden develops into a biodiverse ecosystem. In her quarantine project, Weird Season, she tried to photographically document her perceptual dissonance arising from the dichotomy between our indoor darkness contrasting with the burgeoning life activity outdoors. In 2020, Spring was shocking. Growth felt fierce, brave, vulnerable, and inherently hopeful. She began Confluence in 2021, conjuring thriving fantasy ecosystems in which flora and fauna interact with each other and the vibrant, entangled, buzzing, singing, swimming, flying, growing cadence of life.
