Julie just recently created the awards for this year's Mountainfilm festival and stays busy showing her works across town and throughout the states. She moved to Telluride from Houston in 1985, purchasing a gallery and frame shop with her partner at the time. The shop sold 17 years later allowing Julie to pursue her primary goal as a sculptor. Julie calls the Ah Haa School her second home and you can find her teaching, exhibiting, programming and hanging at the school with her artistic family. She stayed in Telluride, for as her father put it, “Honey, I think you have finally found your element”.
And so, what better to ask the one and only Julie McNair than... "What is your favorite?"
Ice cream flavor?
I love making raspberry sorbet and eating it with a little vanilla bean ice cream.
Guilty Pleasure?
Caffeine is not my friend but occasionally I treat myself to a caramel frappe.
Way to wind down?
A game or three of Backgammon is my favorite way of shifting from a long day at the frame shop.
80’s song?
I would have more answers for favorite 70’s song, but for the 80’s...Roxy Music.
Color?
I am drawn to most shades of red, but in particular, ruby red
Way to start they day?
Listening to NPR on KOTO stimulates my brain which stimulates everything else.
Thrift store find?
My most recent thrift store find was a small elephant pitcher and two festival chairs.
Adventure?
I am fortunate to have a mate that takes me to exotic places, all of which I love, but, my favorite adventure is our very own valley floor were I get to do all my favorite things...kayaking, biking, skiing, hiking and occasionally fishing.
Piece of art you own?
My collection is pretty cool but my favorite is the first piece I ever bought in Houston at an auction..."Rocks" by Susie Rosman. It is a small shadow box piece with a man in a business suit with a wildly painted rock for a head, standing in a room with rocks seemingly hovering.
Piece of art you made?
Many are my favorite when I conceive and make them. My favorite of the latest series of work would be “An Offering”; a standing figure with sgraffito wormlike decoration and wild reddish hair a robin is nesting in. I like thinking of humans giving back to other living things.