Julie Ferring
I studied Fine Arts at the Minneapolis Institute of Art where I met many great friends, traded my catholic uniform in for ‘Art to wear’, became a vegetarian, heard for the first time artist’s like Rothco. Jasper Johns and Franz Cline and was profoundly confused but curious why a gallery filled with only white canvases qualified as Art or that the general philosophical agreement espoused by art critics of the 70”s who claimed ‘Painting was Dead’ and hadn’t a place in the modernist world was cause for much debate. This immersion in the Art world profoundly influenced the ways in which I think and process my own art making experience to this day
At the University of Iowa I received my K/12 Art Education certification. I was accepted into the MFA graduate program under the tutelage of Hans Breder in Multimedia and Naomi Schedl in Fiber Arts where I concentrated many hours in Timothy Barrett’s Paper Making Studio developing 2 and 3 D structures using both traditional Japanese and Western paper making techniques.
Returning to Dubuque I had the opportunity to amalgamate ideas I had been formulating for years while in graduate school into a’ Solo Installation Exhibit at Divine Word College’. Using the spherical form I collected a host of natural found materials to develop sculptures in my hand made paper that expressed symbolic processes within prayer shared by diverse cultures integrating over sized rosary beads and dream catchers to name a few.
I taught Art Classes at the Old Jail Art Museum in Dubuque for children and Adults and was especially challenged to developed a years long curriculum based on the then children's exhibit called the “Symphony of Sound” from a grant proposal for preschoolers attending “Head Start” allowing them access and exposure to the museum.
I was an exhibiting Artist and Board Member of the Rocco Buddha Art Gallery, a Dubuque Artist Collective headed by Ruth Nash.
Most recently I have returned to exploring 2 dimensional surfaces using primarily water media which I can safely ascertain that painting is not Dead after all but ever evolving and changing.
At the University of Iowa I received my K/12 Art Education certification. I was accepted into the MFA graduate program under the tutelage of Hans Breder in Multimedia and Naomi Schedl in Fiber Arts where I concentrated many hours in Timothy Barrett’s Paper Making Studio developing 2 and 3 D structures using both traditional Japanese and Western paper making techniques.
Returning to Dubuque I had the opportunity to amalgamate ideas I had been formulating for years while in graduate school into a’ Solo Installation Exhibit at Divine Word College’. Using the spherical form I collected a host of natural found materials to develop sculptures in my hand made paper that expressed symbolic processes within prayer shared by diverse cultures integrating over sized rosary beads and dream catchers to name a few.
I taught Art Classes at the Old Jail Art Museum in Dubuque for children and Adults and was especially challenged to developed a years long curriculum based on the then children's exhibit called the “Symphony of Sound” from a grant proposal for preschoolers attending “Head Start” allowing them access and exposure to the museum.
I was an exhibiting Artist and Board Member of the Rocco Buddha Art Gallery, a Dubuque Artist Collective headed by Ruth Nash.
Most recently I have returned to exploring 2 dimensional surfaces using primarily water media which I can safely ascertain that painting is not Dead after all but ever evolving and changing.
