ABOUT THE ARTIST

Julie is a storyteller and visual artist and currently lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.

Julie is of Māori and Dalmatian heritage. Her work is intuitive and is influenced by subjects such as the natural environment, social rituals and cultural stories.

She has exhibited in Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and the USA and has developed and implemented numerous arts projects that connect and engage communities of interest through storytelling and art. Central to her current work is her passion to recycle and give new life to objects (repurpose) that would have otherwise been discarded.

The highlight of her career has been the '2012 First Light in Alaska Project'. Julie was one of a group of six artists invited by Anna Hoover, a Aleut film and print maker to deliver workshops for the students and residents of Dillingham in south west Alaska. The workshops offered: drum making; mask making, film making, storytelling, print making and birch bark basket making and carving..

Julie's work appears in private collections in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Hawaii, Canada and Ireland.

“Connecting communities through storytelling is my passion. The need for self-expression exists in many communities, the means to do this is sometimes limited and the sharing of stories is one way of achieving this.”

Julie Tipene-O'Toole, 2013

Ngati Awa, Tainui, Te Rarawa

 

GALLERY