Julia Andrés

Julia has artwork in the Tucson Museum of Art Permanent Collection and many private collections. Andrés won a purchase award in the 2008 Biennial at the Tucson Museum of Art. Andrés attended Wichita State University and University of Arizona for her BFA studies. Julia has worked as a Patineur, Sculptor and Conservator for more than 23 years.

Historically, the art of patina has been defined as the coloration of metal and wood brought about by the oxidation of surfaces, caused by extended exposure to its immediate atmosphere and extreme heat. As a “Patineur”, a term coming from the French and meaning simply that one is an artist of patination. I apply a combination of traditional and contemporary patinas on my silicon bronze, lost wax or direct cast sculpture, and on etched zinc and copper plates.

My bronze castings are tributes to artists, vegetables, fruit, reptiles, Mexican, and French cultures and their traditions, my home state of Kansas, and Native Americans that live in the Sonoran Desert. I pay special homage to the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, the History of Photography, Bay Area writer Jack Kerouac’s haiku poetry, Tucson photographer Todd Walker, two French painters Gauguin, and Cezanne, and other activists, such as Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez that speak of the land and workers of the land. I honor these individuals and common objects by creating still life compositions in bronze with an emphasis on patina, and in my haiku work by incorporating Kerouac’s poetry on hand etched zinc plates.