Julianna Slomka What Moves Me this February in

the ArtSpring Lobby

I was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario. My parents were WWll refugees, my mother from Mariupol, Ukraine, my father from Radom, Poland. They had two of my older sisters in a refugee camp where they lived for five years before immigrating to Canada. Life, was not easy.

I had difficulty learning in school, my pencils only wanted to draw horses, not do schoolwork. I was called slow, lazy, a daydreamer. After dropping out at sixteen, moving out on my own at seventeen, I put my pencils away. As life’s challenges came and went, so did making art. Struggling to maneuver my way through life without an education was very difficult.

I moved to BC in 2005. I didn’t know anyone but looked forward to starting a new life without the bitter cold of Northwestern Ontario winters. Since then, I’ve again picked up my pencil and brushes as well as many other artforms such as Argentine tango, stand-up comedy, live theatre both backstage doing make-up or performing on stage, and photography.

I’ve now retired from over 30 years of driving a school bus, (and let me tell you, that is an artform in itself), however, I am now looking forward to art work taking the drivers seat from now on.

My inspiration comes to me in diff erent ways. Events, emotions, music can bring on a feeling, a story. I work in a number of diff erent mediums depending on each piece. In this exhibit I have both archival and new works. Paintings, drawings in graphite, white pencil, charcoal, or pastel, and photography, all portraying a variety of subjects that interest me, and I hope moves the viewer.

“Life is full of constant adjustments, with laughs in between”

~Julianna Slomka