Island artist Juliet Ehrlich is a sculptor, master potter, illustrator, and painter. Her work has been commissioned by corporations and private clients, as well as for public spaces in the U.S. and internationally.
“I’m self-taught as a painter and sculptor,” Ehrlich says. “The focus of my 51-year career has been as sculptor, working predominantly in clay and bronze, with bas-relief as a principal area of interest.” The correct term for her multiplane, clay-fired, wall-hung sculpture is bas-relief. “The pieces are realized through processes both additive and subtractive in high or low relief, and become, ultimately, painting and sculpture at once.”
Part of Ehrlich’s art education took place abroad. “The Italian consulate in Baltimore gave me a special arts visa so I could go and live in Italy for self-study,” she continues. She has also operated five galleries, including two production pottery studios in the U.S., one of which was on State Road. “Exposure to art has given me the life I lead, and the thrill of that life,” she says. “It nourishes me, contents me, softens me, and gives food for creative thought. Its near-constant companionship helps me to see more, and to feel more.”
Her subject matters are broad. “Diversity is my trademark. I was told when I was 17 years old that I had no particular style, so I decided early on that by design, diversity would be my focus.”
One of her wall-hung sculptures, “La Forza del Destino” (the force of destiny), which was commissioned by private clients, is a joyful piece that celebrates music. It has life-size musical instruments, books, and music notes written out on paper. The instruments look so real, one might be tempted to grab one and start playing.
After she creates a piece, Ehrlich waits until it’s bone-dry before firing it, then reassembles it on a substrate. For her piece “Reindeer in the Snow,” which has a lovely, distinctive, Asian feel, Ehrlich created clay-tile sectional screens. “I chose to cut them in rectilinear, and add silk texture to the long tiles, marrying it with Asian culture.”
For corporate commissions, Ehrlich’s work reflects each company’s stories and processes. Maker’s Mark Whiskey commissioned her to do a piece reflecting its bucolic setting and historic distillation processes. Upon seeing her work, the CEO of Whip Mix, Allen F. Steinbock, commissioned a 30-foot-tall triptych on the theme of international enterprise.
Aside from corporate and private clients, Ehrlich was approached by the State Department, which commissioned 17 pieces of work for ambassador suites: three for Papua, New Guinea, and 14 for Singapore. She was also the principal sculptor for three bronze reliefs, 4 by 6 feet apiece, for the Lincoln Memorial on Louisville’s waterfront.
Pieces that have moved Ehrlich personally include “Orchids” and “Wild Swans.” “I seek opportunities to create movement, to invite visual musicality,” she says. “I can sense the gentle upward force of the burgeoning branches, and also the collective weight that bends their earthbound boughs. Not unlike the movements built and watched within dance, and lines written within poetry, or scores heard within music, there are areas of andante, rest, lento, crescendo.”
About her piece “Whooping Cranes,” Ehrlich says, “I can feel the utter silence of the night through the cranes as they dance and jump in the moonlit snow and dark. The chill and stark white of their feathers seem to cut the air, and that deep navy moves me, yes. Very much.”
Ehrlich says she lives for art and human connection. “I am a mother first and foremost. Watching and listening for the unmasked humanity that peeks out and binds us all. I am an animal with senses finely attuned. I awaken and am immediately drawn and utterly slain by the pervasive beauty about me.”
Ehrlich has a very diverse collection of existing works available for private showings by appointment. Please contact her at juliet.ehrlich@gmail.com or 502-936-3599. You can also view her work at julietehrlich.artspan.com.
