Who We Were Before They Knew

Julie Glass explores the intersection of materials, processes, visuals, and ideas. Her wood collage work uses reclaimed wood, which she cuts, paints and carves, creating endless possibilities of color, pattern, and form. She is inspired by the ideas of quantum physics, in which particles can be anywhere at any time, so it is theorized that parallel universes could exist and we could live an infinite number of lives. If everyone knew they might live every other person's life, empathy would abound and identity would be fluid. Glass has exhibited her work in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and other cities in Louisiana and Mississippi, and will participate in an upcoming exhibition in Chicago. Glass and her wife have recently moved from Shreveport to south Louisiana and are renovating a 100 year old farmhouse. Glass enjoys meeting and working with artists and art organizations, and considers those relationships some of the greatest rewards of her art practice.

The wall hung sculpture "Who We Were Before They Knew" is part of Glass' wood collage series inspired by the ideas of particle physics and multiple universes. Under this theory, we might live many different lives and inhabit diverse identities. The title of this piece is inspired by the idea that those various identities may be judged by people in other groups, but that when people get to know you and like you before they know everything about your identity, it is hard for them to hold on to prejudices against your group and abstract ideas of who you are. In the same way that people get to know you a little bit at a time, the collage of reclaimed wood with handwritten text is meant to be studied and understood a little at a time, although the piece can also be viewed as a whole. As with people, we might judge on first glance, but our impression is altered as we become familiar with the details.