Julie Vermeille’s work is based on ink drawings. As she explains: “I like the fluidity of the medium, the surprises that come from the shapes laid on the paper; I like the idea of things happening a little by chance”. She relies greatly on patterned fabrics, which inspire the floral, vegetal elements in her images. They have the reassuring quality of childhood, as well as a powerful folkloric dimension, often having been created from the point of view of a particular culture or group of people. Julie has also used the thread in her work, as a symbol of time, of relations between one space and another; closeness, tightness, as well as breakages and knots.
Recently Julie has worked on a series of books based on fairytales, dealing with the ambiguity of two worlds: the children’s one, and the adult one. As she puts it: “stories for children but with hidden darker meanings, helping the process of growing up, if we ever have to... ”. She adds: “I am inspired by children's books because of their creativity, their freedom in shape, material, texture and format”.
Julie’s wordless books The Woodies emerged from ink drawings. The Woodies are invented creatures; animal-like in shape, human in character. Julie continues to work on bringing into existence the world that surrounds, feeds and occupies the Woodies. The wordlessness of the Woodies’ world is significant. Julie wishes to allow the shapes and the spaces to “breathe”, and not to overburden the viewer with guidance on how to look at the book. The drawings should be enough to suggest a narrative.
It isn’t far to go from space as a system of clearly marked intervals between objects, to intervals in music. Julie cites music as a great source of inspiration, for what she calls its “intangible aspects”. She means by this the capacity of absolute music to move a listener by expressing thoughts and emotions without using language, even if the listener has no musical training.
The pleasure and illumination a viewer may extract from Julie’s work is not unconnected with a sense of truthfulness. Julie is both pessimistic and optimistic about truth. She is pessimistic as she thinks that glimpsing the truth can be more than difficult to deal with. She is optimistic as she thinks there is a point to, even an ecstasy in, getting hold of the truth. More fundamentally, she is optimistic as she refuses pessimism about finding any truth through her art. The truth she or her viewers find may lie in a better sense of who we are, and a deeper understanding of the way our childhood and adult selves relate to one another.
Born in France in 1981, Julie Vermeille moved to England in 1999. She studied for a BTEC Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at the London College of Printing and graduated in 2004 with a BA (hons) in Illustration from the Camberwell College of Arts. She has been part of the Craft Central Designer network since 2007. As well as producing her own hand-bound books, she has worked for Creaturemag magazine and been published in a Fil Rouge Press book.
Julie Vermeille Illustrations
Paper & Book Art
T: 07515693728
Contact: Julie Vermeille
julievermeille@hotmail.com