Blackmon, Julie

American, b.1966

BiographyJulie Blackmon’s work has drawn comparisons to the work of surrealist painter Balthus and 17th century Dutch painting. Frequently the chaos of bustling family life filled with children is the subject of Julie Blackmon’s playful compositions, inspired in part by both by her own family life as the oldest of nine and mother of three. Of her work, Blackmon has said: “As an artist and as a mother, I believe life’s most poignant moments come from the ability to fuse fantasy and reality: to see the mythic amidst the chaos.”
Julie Blackmon was born in Springfield, Missouri. She studied art education and photography at Southwest Missouri State University. In 2004 she was named Merit Award Winner in the Society for Contemporary Photography Contest and a finalist in the Santa Fe Project Competition for Mind Games, which was exhibited the previous year at the Discovery Center and Randy Bacon Photography, both in Springfield, Missouri. In addition to the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Blackmon’s photographs are held in permanent collections all across the United States, including The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA; Microsoft Art Collection, Redmond, WA; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; and Walt Disney Corporation. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the Fotografiska Museum in New York City; Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY; Houston Center of Photography, Houston, TX; the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, NH, and many institutions.