Works on Paper

Julie’s drawing and painting practice started in the 1990s while living in Brooklyn, NYC. She was inspired by the brilliant imagination of New Zealand writer, Janet Frame (1924-2004) and her attunement to the sensory world. Jenkinson was profoundly moved by the way Frame was able to find an inner world of beauty and bewilderment despite her struggles with a tragic life.

Jenkinson began depicting Frame’s narratives in small charcoal drawings. While reading was a constant source of inspiration for her early works on paper, it was through following a deeper state of the subconscious that she has created hundreds of hybrid animals, obsessively, for over 20 years.

In addition to works on paper, Jenkinson’s characters have been applied to surface and pattern design including her Animaze pattern (pajamas, textiles, wallpaper) cards and silkscreen prints showcased at The ICFF, NYC, 2010 and The Design Exchange, Toronto, 2011. Her drawings were included in The Drawing Centre’s Viewing Program, NYC in the early 2000s. Her work is available through Byrd House Gallery and INabstracto.

"My drawings evolve from memory and imagination rather than direct observation or preliminary sketches. I'm interested in expressing the raw space of my emotion. I love the subversive reality in vintage cartoons as much as the complexity in primitive renderings of animals and characters. I feel a connection to the eccentricity in certain animals. In my work the creatures act out the absurdity and vulnerability in the underbelly of humanity."

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