Julia Licht has found inspiration in some fairly unique places.
“What inspired me, really, was the people I saw standing on the streets," she says.
She has been painting most of her life. She knew she wanted to be an artist practically since she was a toddler. She went to school for it in Philadelphia, two hours down the road from her native New York City. She was doing well as a street artist in New York City for a while, she says, until she got married.
“That didn’t go so well.”
That led to a change of scenery. She put her three toddlers in the car and headed South. Her parents were here in Savannah. She’s lived here ever since. Those toddlers are teenagers now.
I first saw Julia’s work on the walls at Hop Atomica, on Broad and 39th street. A lot of her work had been on display there throughout March. Her style was fun, colorful, but the themes seemed anything but. Diners and darkness dominated the landscape. From my perspective, there was a blue collar feel to these pieces. She doesn’t disagree.
“There were a lot of late night road trips with the kids to and from New York,” she says. “I’ve always been drawn to people’s stories.”
Julia says her dad was a big reader. “All accepting” is how she describes him. That led her to being inspired by some of the people she saw in the strangest of places.
“While I was doing a Waffle House thing, I wound up down a rabbit hole.”
The rabbit hole is a collection of work that could be described as a snapshot of late night in America. Diners, bottles of hot sauce, short order cooks, messy counter tops and pizza ovens. Her collection includes a beautiful old school look at Larry’s Restaurant on Skidaway Road. It’s a perfect piece for someone who may have grown up here in Savannah with memories of that now closed down eatery.
Remember the Krispy Kreme across the street? She’s painted that as well. Talk about memory lane.
It’s good looking work. It made me smile. Perhaps because it tugged on my own heart strings in reminding me of my own single mother working in diners - sometimes late at night - to make ends meet for herself and her two children.
Like Julia says, everyone has a story. She just found a small window to share some of them.
Late nights and diners are not all of her work. She also had a collection of paintings of pets on display at Finches Sandwiches and Sundries in Thunderbolt.
“I’ve recently been inspired by the elderly too.” she adds.
Yeah, it’s a little bit all over the map, but such is life for an artist sometimes, right?” The day I caught up with Julia, she was riding her bike through a State Park mid afternoon, taking a break from her home studio. You just never know when that inspiration may hit you.
You can see some of Julia’s work at Hop Atomica through March 1st. Otherwise, you can find a lot of it on Instagram @artbyjulialicht or her website julialicht.art
Take a look. I bet you’ll see it and like it.
