TALENTS: Julie Klein – Danish Artist

Julie Klein

Decorator and Freelance Artist

FIND ME: @ileftmyselfathome

Secret Talent: It’s always such a big surprise to people around me, but I’m very technical with a football

What makes your art unique and important?

My art? Unique? It isn’t. I always remind myself that every great idea someone has ever had and will get, goes back into “the wheel.” However, my imagination and point of view is unique just like everyone else’s. Transforming it into an art piece or just something physical is an open door to my emotional life for people to walk in. It’s scary, because some people take off their shoes before they walk in, some people just walk in directly and some people might even walk in with mud on their soles! Likewise, there will be those, who don’t recognize or even notice there’s a door!

“We must not go through life and miss the details, and we must not go through life and think we see things simply as they are. Art is for me a way to stay open to the world. That be another reason for why it is so important.”

I guess, this answers the question why my art – and art in general – is important. It’s important because I dare to let people judge me only by the fact that I am creating and putting my perspective on display, but along with that risk comes the opportunity for people to mirror each other. With the two exhibitions I’ve had so far, I’ve been very preoccupied with somehow breaking habits and routines. In retrospect, I think my art tends to have a very playful way of expressing some really heavy thoughts. If I can turn something upside down, I will definitely do it! The pattern goes on again and again in my work, is the unexpected or surprising element; a “twist” that disrupts our cognitive schemas, but at the same time appears to fit in.

What inspires you?

Courage! And the unexpected, surprisingly. Today it was some photograph of pink lettuce I found on Instagram. First, I thought it must have been fake-colored somehow, and then I thought that it might have been edited. However, I immediately googled it and found out that is was called “Radicchio del Veneto” and is grown mainly in Italy. It was so, so beautiful, and then it was not green like you would have EXPECTED. I just liked that.

Who do you look up to?

Oh my… So many people. Known and unknown. But to be honest, it comes and goes. Still, if I had to name-drop any well-known artists, then Grayson Perry, Marina Abramovich and Asger Jorn are the three personalities overshadowing my world. All three of them are wildly different, but what I feel they all have in common is that they don’t do art to call it art. In all their works, I am left with a deep sense of trustworthiness towards their work; like this was something they HAD to do no matter the cost.

Are you in love?

Yes… I’m in love. Like LOVE-LOVE! I’ve met a man whom I intend to spend the rest of my life trying to make happy. I think that he’s so sweet and so interesting and so caring and so funny that I wish I could duplicate him into small pocket-dolls that everyone could bring with them to survive this mad world! Ha ha…

What does your work mean to you?

My work means an opportunity to speak without words. It’s a place where my longings get to meet-and-greet, and where I’m able to push the boundaries or limitations that I feel society, people and sometimes even I myself put up. When I produce something with my hands, it means I get it out of my head and am able to observe it and look at it in a different light. If I did not make this transformation from idea to product, my skull would strike cracks with swarms of thoughts! So, in the long run it’s probably a way to place my thoughts, experiences and unrest somewhere.

What is your favourite part of the creative process?

BEING IN THE FLOW! That exact moment where time and place penetrate to the background and I will do anything to get the right expression. During my exhibition debut I spent lots of money that I could (and maybe should) have spent on my daily costs. It was simply never an option not to get the materials I needed to complete my work. I almost lived in a builder’s merchant – I walked around beaches, forests and dumps as well. I actually got a huge tree that my neighbors had cut down and intended to throw away!

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Actually, I’m at very exciting tilting point in my life right now. It’s probably going to sound a bit like a cliché, but the fact and the matter is that the Corona lockdown created time and space for me to take a few steps back and reflect. A couple of weeks before the lockdown a person asked me, who I dreamed of being back when I was a child and I just answered “nothing”. Then suddenly, while the lockdown was happening and out of the blue, it came back to me! I whispered to myself in my living room: “no, that isn’t true. I wanted to become an interior designer”. It was such an extreme experience realizing that somewhere on the way I’ve been throwing that childhood dream of mine overboard. Half an hour later, I wrote to different schools and now I’m signed up for one of them starting this October!

“ It is both scary and wonderful to be exactly in that state of mind in the creative process. It’s pure escapism and exactly the point where everything makes sense and I feel like I’m a genius. However, you better enjoy it! It can disappear from one second to another and the uncertainty is always lurking.”

My grandpa, who is working as a full-time pop art artist always told me: “you have to know what your talent is, otherwise, it doesn’t matter”. It has truly been a philosophy of life that I kept coming back to and I am sure that it saved me a hundred times for not putting myself on a meaningless path. Even when the big voice of society yelled at me “that is not a safe choice” – I decided to go with an art study anyway. And again, when it yelled at me “you cannot do anything without a master’s degree” – I decided to complete only the bachelor’s degree. So, what matters to me is not what title I can put onto myself, it is more the fact that I’m in a position where I’m able to unfold my potential in some way or another; and thereby make a positive change somehow, somewhere in the world. That is my five-year goal and the-rest-of-my-life goal.

Keep up with Julie’s creations via Instagram.

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