We visited artists Julia Goodman and Michael Hall in their family studio complex in Berkeley this past week and it felt as if our past year’s dreadful heaviness got lifted and washed away in an hour. It was an afternoon filled with seeing through art, talking about each of their intricate and painstaking, detailed processes of art making, laughing and empathizing while sharing stories about juggling parenting and work, all of which nourished us in ways uniquely human and resilient.
Julia shared a year-long process-based piece she started after lockdown to mark the isolating days of COVID, ripping antique bed sheets and tying them together then adding papier-maché hand molds to mark the week. Her sketchbook also took on a more pronounced role as she ‘jotted’ ideas in watercolor to negotiate a 2-dimensional shape before its 3-dimensional form. All of this was done while parenting their son who has taken center stage in the couple’s artistic life.
Michael, for his part has transformed his painting studio into a full-time teaching studio, and like Julia, has a lot of projects underway. He shared some pieces from his Belongings series, renderings of his own personal collections of music, ephemera, films, books, letters, etc. The ones that survived Covid were smaller works that he could accomplish at the dining room table. These homages (see the rendered Prince concert ticket and DVD case of Grey Gardens) are imbued with memories of time and place, of fame and fandom, of cultural reverence as well as longing for the days we could gather in public space.
Both artists spoke of creating small spans of time throughout the day or week to move their projects forward. The studio was alive, and reminded us that artists know what to do in a pandemic—make.
While we do not know when it will be safe to gather in person, we at SEE(d) along with Julia and Michael cannot wait until the day we can host our SEE(d) community members and share the amazing work they have been producing during this past year.
Enjoy a few images from the Julia and Michael’s studio visit…
