Julie Dermansky: Journal page - European monumental architecture

Julie is one of my favorite artists and she has always been a huge source of inspiration and encouragement to me. She is so committed to making art and has a lot of experience in how one survives financially and psychically as a creative person.

JULIE: Inspiration is overrated. It's all about discipline. There are glimmers of inspiration, when you lose touch with time and place but you can't wait around for that. When I start working on something where I am so excited it's like some sort of drug, I'm just alive. But the only way to get there is through discipline.
It doesn't matter why you make art, you've just got to make stuff and eventually you'll understand. I won this grant that allowed me to travel for a year. I just had to write four letters back to the foundation over that year. That was it. I was 20 and I could do whatever I wanted. So I just made drawings in my journal, drawing monumental architecture all over Europe. That was my only discipline, my commitment to do at least one drawing every single day. And because the fancy journal books were too expensive, I made my own, ripping up water color paper and tying it together. It evolved as I went. And when a book was filled, I would send it home and I had no idea what the value of what I was doing could be until I came home and saw all those journals. It came out of me with no forethought and I'd never done it that way before. It just came out that way. I didn’t worry what people would think, I just tried to be honest. And I didn't worry about the quality of the drawing, I just went with it. I hated having a page I didn’t like so I kept working it until I liked it. Those pages are so vibrant and visceral, so raw. I don't know if I can get back to that looseness, pure hand /eye. The more time I had the more I let go, the looser, the better it all got. That art was my reason for getting up each day. For me, travel is a lot of work. Nothing planned, figuring everything out on the fly, real work.
(To be continued)
The Roberson museum in Binghamton, NY is showing a retrospective of Julie's work. Well worth the trip!