Julia Harrison
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Julia Harrison is an artist specializing in sculpture and jewelry who thrives on exploring new materials and techniques. As an educator, Julia leads workshops on carving, jewelry-making, and professional development for students of all levels at venues including the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and the Arrowmont Craft School. Julia is also an active craft researcher, conducting a long-term project on carved wooden confectionery molds that has been supported by the World Wood Day Foundation, the Winterthur Museum, and the Center for Craft. Julia spent twenty years in Seattle before moving to North Carolina in 2020 for the Penland School of Craft’s residency program, and is currently the 2025 National Artist-in-Residence at Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh.
ARTIST STATEMENT
As an artist, educator, and anthropologist, I’ve spent a lot of time on the move. Location and dislocation constantly inform my work, constraining it in some ways and expanding it in others.
Whether my destination is across town, across the state, or in a different country, I usually arrive in a new place confused and clueless. I desperately look for anything that will help me to get my bearings and settle in. This has given me a deep appreciation for objects that quietly signal how to behave or what to prioritize.
New places tantalize me with new materials. But they don’t just stock my pantry with novelties; they also stretch my notions of what is workable, and challenge my calculations of which materials are worth working with. I gravitate towards materials that can be used subtractively, meaning my pieces usually become smaller, lighter, and more portable as they develop.
My favorite forms are familiar ones, based on observation rather than imagination. I love the idea that travel should be less about seeing new things and more about seeing with new eyes, and I try to apply the same principle to my own work and my everyday life.