Julie Pelaez
About the Create! Magazine 10th Anniversary Book: Create! Magazine is honored to celebrate a decade of contemporary art by publishing a look back at previously selected artists: their achievements, career growth, and more since being published. Stay tuned for the book launch in fall 2026, and join our newsletter to stay up to date.
The daughter of an artist and herself a lifelong creative, Julie Pelaez, featured in both Create! Magazine and the Create! Magazine 10th Anniversary Book, graduated with a BFA from the University of Delaware and spent a decade as an Advertising Art Director in the Washington, D.C. area. After transitioning to full-time motherhood and moving to Austin in 2011, she found herself in need of a creative outlet and began turning nap times into therapeutic painting sessions. Abstract painting—particularly working with ink—provided a powerful avenue for expression unlike any medium she had experienced before.
After years of honing her skills and building a substantial body of work, Julie began exhibiting in Austin galleries in 2015. Today, her practice includes commissions from private nurseries to large-scale corporate installations with Mandalay Bay Resort & Convention Center, print collaborations with national retailers, and a growing line of wallpaper designs. She has participated in dozens of exhibitions nationwide and is known for her themed original art collections that release semi-annually online. Her work has been recognized in Create! Magazine, Envision Arts Magazine, Glasstire, and Austin Monthly.
Julie continues to blend her deep interest in personal development with her abstract painting practice from her home studio in Austin, Texas, where she lives with her husband and their (now teenage) sons.
Artist Statement
My artwork is an empowering tool to elevate interiors while cultivating the personal growth of the people who inhabit them. Each piece is a personal narrative, an inspiration, a rallying cry, a universal theme of human experience we can all relate to. While abstract, the choices of composition, color, technique, and materials are very calculated and symbolic. In this way, I draw upon my heavy conceptual background gained from a decade-long career as an Advertising Art Director.
I work in collections, each with its own central concept and distinct execution style. Through symbolism, titles, and visual storytelling, each collection implies a conscious question requiring self-inquiry on the part of the viewer. For example, the “Floodgates” Collection asks, “How can I get out of my own way to allow in healing?” Compositionally, a draped “curtain” of layered gestural mixed media falls away. It is through this symbolic shedding of repetitive patterns and subconscious stories that the calming gradient below (symbolizing transition) is uncovered to make way for growth and healing. On the back of each artwork is a message: “We are the gatekeepers to our own healing.” Through this contemplation, viewers connect to both the artwork and a deeper knowing of themselves. Seeing the art daily on the wall then serves as a visual reminder that, as the gatekeeper, they have the power to initiate the lasting change they seek.
www.juliepelaezstudios.com
