Biography

Julie Anne Kallini has been in love with Ceramics for over 25 years. The foundation of her path has been influenced by her drive to create ceramic sculptures and in the process of learning how to be a maker, she learned how to be an educator. As an undergrad in the Fine Arts, she leaned in to Open Studio hours and worked through as many fundamental skills, styles, techniques, and aesthetic choices as she could; all the while, learning the behind the scenes work that goes into maintaining a Ceramic Studio. The jobs that she has had in studio maintenance have provided her with a set of skills useful as a teacher and a practicing artist. After receiving her BFA from UofA, she rented a studio space in Tucson, AZ, made sculptures which she exhibited in local shows and galleries. She saw a future in teaching college, so began a chapter of Academia that led her to Chicago where she challenged herself, making a new body of work for her MFA applications; during which she he moved from Chicago to Southern California while applying to schools around the country. She ended up going to New Bedford, MA for a three year program at UMass Dartmouth which was an all-expansive experience that filled her with new ways of thinking and learning and endless possibilities for her future.
Moving back to Tucson was a way to develop some roots and find her footing. Her first job after receiving her MFA was teaching ceramics to adults with special needs - this preceded her college instructor years, but had a profound effect on her teaching philosophy and her compassion for people - she learned about an invisible population - people living in different bodies, minds, ages and abilities and how to communicate in a multitude of ways, including nonverbally. Kallini went on to teach at her local community college with students of all ages - experienced a life goal to be a full time art instructor, an adjunct instructor, and then a full time lab tech for the 3D arts. She embraced her role in nurturing other people to find their voice through ceramics and other mediums, learning and teaching to better instruct others. She also fell in love and got married to a creative, sensitive soul. After a big move across the country with her husband and dog, she began a pursuit of building her own studio, nurturing her artistic dreams and getting back to the one thing she always knew she wanted to be doing - making sculptures in her own, self-sufficient space.
Kallini, with help from her partner, created such a space, constructing a room with a large window and view of their backyard and all the nature that goes with canal life in south Florida- a space where she can tap into the depths of her subconscious, access from the library of her mind - memories, places, moments in nature, architecture, time periods - and translate them into her sculptures, practicing the cultivation of more than half of her life. For years she loaded, fired, unloaded, troubleshot, and maintained other people’s kilns; now, she fires her own kiln. Julie tries to honor her time teaching by practicing what she would preach, utilizing years of tools and knowledge that led her to this point in her career and life.