Julie McNair’s clay and mixed media sculpture is reflective of the natural world and our place in it. The Telluride-based artist makes freestanding figures that are well grounded as well as smaller figures designed to hang on the wall. Clay is her preferred medium because it lends itself to her intuitive creative process. Once the form is created and fired, it becomes a blank canvas without a clear narrative. It is in the finishing that everything comes together. Julie incorporates glazing with oil pigments, acrylics, stolen ink (gel medium transfers), graphite, prisma colors, fire, and anything that might create an interesting effect. The fish and swallows she makes often include collage elements like maps of the Telluride area and scrapbook paper with abstract designs, peacock feathers, flower motifs, and more. Over the years, Julie McNair mined the rich history of doll-making (which dates back 25,000 years) to make fantastical clay images that, like their cultural antecedents, make an invisible life visible: namely hers. Julie’s doll-like forms are at once ironical and allegorical, personal and universal, but always, they are magically expressive and tinged with pathos and/or humor. As a Telluride native since 1985, Julie’s work has been represented by many galleries in the Southwest. Fringe Gallery is proud to represent her work in Telluride.