Julia Hale: Nautilus

Exhibition Abstract

Nautilus is a psychoanalytical painting practice delving into the inner components of the psyche. By observing the literal and metaphorical reflections in our environment, we can get to know ourselves and others better. Being in a state of reciprocity and understanding allows us to observe the environment as a powerful tool for introspection. Without internal change, people lack real power for external change.

Nautilus seeks to create a psychological mirror. The pieces change in their figurative scale, showing familiar collective interactions of the ordinary that turn ritualistic and sacred through memory, familiarity, and repetition. The nautilus shell found in the ocean is a reflection of this micro-macro relationship in a vast sea of environmental interaction. Like any conscious being, we fragment and distill our experiences into under and overlooked parts. This creates an ebb and flow of ever-unfolding relationships.

The work acts as a conduit for reflection, distortion, and the duplication of natural elements. This accounts for life as a cycle of change, growing, remembering, and misremembering. Much like an environment is ever-changing, the mind is ever-changing and ever-growing. Nautilus exists as a diving point into one's unique and intangible inner nature.

Exhibitor Biography

Julia Hale is a painter and creator of original explorations of spirituality, heaven, earth, and what lies beyond the physical. Her work speaks to an open-mindedness that arouses the delicacy of creation, leading the viewer to not only see art as it is, but to see it as they are. Teaching through silent movements, the art inspires questions without the promise of an answer. Hale is a senior B.F.A. student at Cornell University with a minor in architecture.