Bio

Julie Goldstein’s art practice draws inspiration based on personal experiences in storytelling, humor, and whimsical interpretations around motherhood, marriage, and everyday life. The stories told are often semi-autobiographical and are inspired by her relationships and lively depictions of women throughout history and in various societies that have collaborated to break societal norms, create change, empower, and inspire. She mixes lithographic and woodcut printmaking and text, stitching, and embroidery techniques in multimedia works on paper and fabric. She has exhibited nationally and internationally since 1998, including several solo exhibitions since 2008. Her work has appeared in Adventure Journal, NYLON Magazine, BLUE Magazine, Honey Magazine, Surfline, Surfer Girl Magazine, Daily Candy, Drift Magazine, NEast Magazine, Better Homes and Garden, and Apartment Therapy, as well as a featured artist in the documentary Hanging Five. In addition, she collaborated with BING, BEAMS, AXXE, ROXY, Alternative Apparel, REEF, Patagonia, and VUORI, creating everything from textile designs for apparel and wetsuits to skateboard decks. She has received honors from the Long Beach Island Foundation for the Arts and the Printmaking Council of New Jersey. Julie teaches Printmaking at California State University San Marcos and currently resides with her husband Mark Tesi and son Francesco in Encinitas, California.

Artist Statement

As a visual artist and printmaker, I document the people, memories, and environments that shape my life, creating work that weaves personal narrative with cultural reflection and explores resilience, identity, and our relationship with nature, especially the sea. My practice grows from my childhood memories on Long Beach Island, my years in New York City, and my life in Southern California—their contrasting textures, light, and human stories continue to guide my imagery.

Each stage of the printmaking process: carving, inking, and hand-burnishing is an embodied act that links physical endurance to storytelling. While traveling, I make sketches as well as carry small pine or poplar blocks to record close observations and ideas that often evolve into large-scale woodcuts—portraits and scenes carved from 4-by-8-foot sheets of plywood. Rooted in Japanese print traditions and shaped by German Expressionism, my prints reveal their making through woodgrain, spoon marks, and layered color, and extend onto thrifted fabrics embellished with embroidery inspired by Boro quilts. These works examine “women’s work,” honoring the craft passed down through my mother and grandmother while reframing it through a contemporary feminist lens. Drawing from autobiography, folklore, art history, and social issues, I build narratives that connect personal experience to broader cultural and environmental contexts, grounding my studio practice in curiosity, reflection, and the enduring power of process.

My images emerge from lived experience—motherhood, relationships, and the hours I spend in the sea—while the faces of friends and family echo a lineage of women whose courage and resilience have inspired change. Many works are semi-autobiographical, shaped by historical research, personal relationships, and the full range of experiences that inform my life. Ultimately, my practice is a meditation on endurance, empathy, and connection. Wood, fabric, and ink hold the memory of each gesture, mirroring the resilience of the body and the spirit. Guided by subtle shifts of color in nature and the built environment, I choose materials—ink, fabric, stitching, and handmade books—whose surfaces are as vital as the images they hold. Through these processes, I hope to evoke memory, empower viewers, and invite a deeper connection to personal truth and the quiet transformations that art offers.