Julie Scrivener’s parents, from Toronto, were transferred to Italy for three years, sailing from New York on the SS Leonardo da Vinci ocean liner to Genoa, where Julie was born. In a few months the three moved to Rome, as planned, where her father was tasked with creating a Canadian division of a multinational corporation. They lived there happily, then returned to Toronto, where Julie and her two siblings grew up. Julie lived in Sydney, Australia, on a six-month working holiday visa in the 1980s, which was extended to a year, before coming home, having seen, among so much else, her paternal great-grandfather’s hexagonal house and irrigated gardens that he designed and built in the paradise of the Blue Mountains. Her paternal grandfather came to Canada to graduate from McGill University in engineering. Julie’s mother was an OCA (Ontario College of Art, now OCAD) grad, at 18 having decided not to become a professional musician like her mother, but a (gifted) painter. Julie has been fortunate to have seen much of the world, but she would love to continue her travels for creative inspiration, education and pleasure. Julie explores creative expression through various disciplines. With digital photography, she may subtly enhance an image, or not, to preserve its delicate found state; render from this something novel, nuanced, and possibly quite dissimilar; or, modify an image from the original or soft iteration, unrestrained. Discovering with abandon, she notes minute and/or radical changes to build on, experimenting in likely myriad ways, rejecting decisions or pivoting at points. The order and kinds of implementations conceivable, depending on where the image is going, are infinite. Julie completes the artwork when it simply feels and seems a lucid, or intentionally hazy—an example of one mood or thought—communication. The artwork and the experiencer of it are engaged in a unique and intimate conversation, perhaps silent, but which can provide dialogue with self or among viewers, even strangers: the artwork and viewer(s) speak and listen to each other, at whatever pace, with however many pauses, visits and interpretations. This collaboration travels far and wide. The artwork may be a stand-alone piece or part of a series created in one of these ways. Julie’s current or past creations or life experiences may bring a new understanding of her self, this changing world and her and others’ parts and choices available in it. Or an idea may spark ostensibly out of nowhere that causes her to investigate. Sometimes it is not clear which discipline(s) to pursue for a particular project, but that can make experimentation with multiple (merged) options all the more exciting and fulfilling, and lead to a better suited or richer plan for the present or another time. Occasionally Julie gives herself a theme or prompt to pursue or a topic turns out to be only slightly below the surface of an endeavour yet to be delineated, bubbling up to solidify the work at some unexpected point. Sometimes a news headline or story gift a concept. (Self-directed) theme or none, or directive for a creative submission, that most inner guide in her prevails. And so the creative process renews. This approach often yields many fully executed and successful variations of each image, to finally reveal one or several favourites. These may become a series. Sometimes Julie fuses her photographs with her own drawings, photographs of self or others, or her photographs of nature or architecture captured in all seasons, at home or abroad. Julie deems that artworks need not necessarily require explanation, but may be better appreciated simply by absorbing them, unhurried, without preconceptions before, or rather than, knowing the artist’s own take: some people will simply find some works arresting and meaningful, possibly without knowing, or wanting to uncover, precisely why. Some people will want to live with them. In this way, a new interaction can emerge that surprises and delights. Julie’s most recent pursuit is modelling in June, 2024, for the madcap and elegant REfashi Show by Jack de Rap at Foy House in Toronto, where she also showed some art pieces, all thanks to Georgia Wilder. REfashi is about the importance of sustainable fashion and the joy of creating and sharing it. We also hope it inspires people to think about the way they can transform everyday items. Julie has been implementing green habits for decades, although she is wondering how she can square this with the travelling she has done and would like to do: getting on a plane is hardly eco-friendly. Julie has worked from December, 2021, on the outreach team, as a blogger, interviewee, and most recently paper (film) editor for two of eight episodes (so far) of Project Channel 2400, an important Workman Arts interview series produced by James Buffin. One of her poems, “Respite”, was the centrepiece of a live musical premiere by multidisciplinary artist Tristan Zaba and others in September, 2022, at Native Earth Aki Studio. Julie’s work was shown at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Portraits of Resilience Exhibition, one of six panels (six totalling 384 photos) of Coronillogical Order from April to August, 2022. She made two short films in 2021, Home and Hope, with original spoken word and original music, and one with her own original spoken word, original music and voiceover, All This Time, playing at Rendezvous With Madness Festival in October, 2020, at which Julie was a panelist. From November, 2020, to April, 2021, Julie was one of three poets-in-residence selected by Amadeus Choir to co-create original choral works that reflect our time and place, and to explore the nature of cross-disciplinary collaboration, with three selected composers-in-residence for the season, everyone’s works to be recorded and performed. In March, 2021, Julie was Being Scene poet-in-residence for claude wittmann’s “68” livestreamed performance about housing demands to the City of Toronto. In March, 2020, Julie exhibited at Being Scene Annual Juried Art Exhibition (Direction, Realization, sold Exploration) and was a musician for the opening, with all original musical compositions, lyrics, and vocals at Toronto Media Arts Centre (TMAC), subsequently virtual due to COVID-19. In February and March, 2019, Julie exhibited two portraits of Eye See You at Being Scene 2019: 18th Annual Visual Arts Exhibition, curated by Claudette Abrams, at TMAC. In October, 2018, Julie’s troupe, Mad Dreams, performed an all original, choreographed, interactive musical composition of hers, “Makes Perfect Sense”, with vocals, lyrics, and harmonies (harmonies sung by collaborators), video (collaborator), and original spoken word by Julie, solo (by collaborator, solo) at Nerve Endings, Workman Arts, Rendezvous With Madness Festival, as well as at The Bentway Variety Show. In June, 2018, Julie founded Mad Dreams multidisciplinary troupe. In May and June, Julie showed her work at Scotiabank Mindset: Exposure CONTACT Photography Festival (piece Taken) curated by Claudette Abrams, Workman Arts, at Artscape Youngplace. In May, 2018, Julie’s poems “Entity” and “Toronto Incognito, Please, But Alien, Thanks, No” and their corresponding artworks were selected for Workman Arts’s second OLP (online publication) issue, The City: A Place of Acceptance or Adversity. In March, 2018, Julie’s portrait was selected from 400+, with original poem “We Both Know We Both Know” included for buyer (sold), Being Scene 2018: 17th Annual Juried Arts Exhibition at the Gladstone Hotel Gallery. In December, 2017, Julie’s portrait, one of 25, her concept, was on the cover of Winter 2018 Professional Art Training Catalogue, Workman Arts. From October to December, 2017, Julie’s two portraits in Mixed States Group Portrait Installation Exhibition Project, Workman Arts, at Tarragon Theatre, were shown. From September to October, 2017, three of Julie’s portraits from the Mixed States Group Portrait Installation Exhibition Project, Workman Arts, CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) exhibited at the Pop-up Gallery, opening night of Nuit Blanche. In September 2015 and 2014, Julie was a visual and jewelry artist at Creative on Queen, Queen West Art Crawl, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. In November, 2012, Julie’s two artworks, Crazy Now and Then, which she donated to Fudger House, and The Mad Chatter, were in Cinemanic Group Art Show, Workman Arts, Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival (in TIFF preshow), at T.A.N. Coffee. Julie was enrolled in the three-year Graphic Design Program at George Brown College from September, 1994, to May, 1997, when she graduated with a diploma. She was placed at Corus Entertainment, but due to health reasons did not pursue it. She studied for six years at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music as a child, has composed and recorded many songs singing her own lyrics and harmonies, often multi-instrumental electronic compositions, at times featuring ambient outdoor sounds in the arrangements, but is mainly self-taught in her artistic adventures. She works for Workman Arts as an active listener (peer support) for the membership in classes and at events one-on-one, and has had much experience facilitating mental health groups, in person and online. Hours-long walks, as well as LHS (lifting heavy shit, as it’s known), are weekly practices. Julie is trying to find more time for herself to assess what interests her most (besides everything), given that everyone’s time left is unknowable and finite. Julie is also considering recently how essential it is just to be.