Julia Dzikiewicz is an encaustic painter who sets up shop at Lorton’s Workhouse Arts Center.  Her work is folksy and original and combined with her unique biography, make for an interesting second look.  We particularly liked her 9/11 series When I First Heard, Martyr and Hero, and When Hope Rises all shown below.  She’s been successfully showing her works in major cities since 2002 and you can catch her at Artomatic 09 too.  

Julia’s latest work concerns transformation and suffering.As a woman artist, her works reflect upon the brave women who were imprisoned at the Workhouse Center. They were force-fed, put into solitary confinement,and sleep deprived for demanding the right to vote. She says she often wonders how they awakened to the idea that they deserved basic human rights, in a time where this was considered absurd.  These paintings conbine images of women from that era,portraits of figures in the suffagrette movement,and icons of their oppression and struggle for freedom.  These works are created with encaustic. Mixed media works include real photo postcards from the early 1900′s.

Julia Dzikiewicz, When I First Heard

Julia Dzikiewicz, Martyr and Hero

Julia Dzikiewicz, When Hope Rises