American born, Julia grew up in Maryland before embarking on a 20 year fashion career in NYC. Designing swimwear lingerie and loungewear for Calvin Klein, GapBody, Jcrew and Victoria Secret before moving to Sydney Australia.
That career took a pause in 2007 with the birth of her first child, Jack who was born medically fragile with a severe developmental delay due to a chromosome anomaly and a later diagnosis of Autism. Julia devoted herself as primary caregiver, medical coordinator and therapy assistant for his first year before returning to work part time. Juggling Jack’s needs, a career and later, two vivacious daughters was always a strain on the entire family. In 2019 during a meditation course she realised much of her life was spent on autopilot and wasn’t appreciating the joys in her life. Urged by her husband, Jeremy of 16 years, she turned in her last resignation to the fashion world in 2019.
Becoming a painter someday was a very lofty aspiration but when a friend suggested she just try a class ... she was surprised at the results. The 25+ years in fashion had developed an excellent sense of colour and years of technical sketching of lingerie gave her landscapes depth and perspective
Julia’s family has a wonderful little beach house on the South Coast of NSW and refers to it as her happy place. “I’ve always been drawn to the ocean. I wanted to design swimwear so I could think about being on the beach even in a high rise office in Manhattan. NSW South Coast is just a little piece of heaven. It’s untouched magic”. Many of her paintings are inspired by her time spent there during school holidays
Jack, now 14, attends Giant Steps school for Kids with Autism. He has absolutely flourished there and the family is so grateful for the school and it’s community. Julia has donated many paintings to school fundraisers. She volunteers at the school and their events whenever she can. Five of her paintings will be available for auction at the Annual Ball and 25% of all proceeds go to the school.
Julia welcomes commissions and has done many for friends and family.