JULIAN PACE
You have to make the final call with everything because it’s you, it’s all you.
— JULIAN PACE
JULIAN PACE IS GOING BACK TO HIS ROOTS IN WALla WALlA
words & images by David Katzinger
It’s a natural inclination that people have when they want to be authentic to imitate authenticity. In the world of art, it’s easy to lose yourself in the race to find success. It can be easy to look at what’s selling and change your practice to fit the market. It can be easy to let a gallerist continue to take advantage of your worth because they’ve helped you afford the ability to paint full-time.
You have to find your own path.
Julian Pace, is an artist who’s not afraid to follow his intuition and make drastic changes when he feels they’re needed. He’s also not afraid to take a step back to evaluate himself to make sure that the direction he’s going in is one that feels true to who he is.
Julian no longer lives in the house that you see in these photographs. He doesn’t have a long beard or a shaved head either, and he’s no longer surrounded by lemons. Those images were taken in Los Angeles. Julian now paints from a garage attached to his grandparents house in Walla Walla, Washington. His whole studio is now spilled out into the home that helped shape him into the person who he is today. Mixed amongst old family photos, antique furniture and leaned against ornate wallpaper are Julian’s paintings that often hang on the white walls of prominent galleries and in the homes of private collectors all over the world.
DK: What an amazing environment to put yourself back into. What does family mean to you?
JP: My family is very grounding. They’re laid back and they know me. They’re real, good-hearted people. It’s very much given me perspective on the kind of life that I’d want for myself and they lead by example.
I’ve found it very inspirational being in touch with the people who molded me.
I think if you met my family you’d understand me more. They mean the world to me. They’ll help you with anything at the drop of a hat. They’ve done so much for me already in just the short time that I’ve been here and always do and always have, no questions asked. There’s never any ‘well, what are you going to do for me?’ kind of thing.
DK: The theme of this issue is Grassroots. In a way it almost feels like you’re returning back to your roots in being back in Walla Walla.
JP: That’s a good way to say it. I spent a lot of time here as a kid and I don’t think I appreciated it as much as I do now. A thousand percent I didn’t appreciate it as much as I do now having lived the life I’ve lived. I would have never seen myself living in a place like this growing up. I wanted to be in the city and to travel.
I’m living in my grandparents' old house and just seeing everything from family photographs to old documents. It’s allowed me to really get in touch with my roots. It’s allowed me to recalibrate and focus on the life that I really want for myself. I think my family is a big part of that. I see the people they are and the live’s they’ve lived and it’s very inspirational.
DK: Especially living in L.A. for as long as you did you can definitely experience a different kind of person.
JP: When you’re in L.A., people are all constantly networking and figuring out what can this person do for me and here, people don’t really give a fuck about what you do. They’re more interested in the person for who they are. And that’s speaking as a transplant to L.A. Obviously there are people who grew up there and have their relationships and family and all that stuff. But when I went there I didn’t know anybody and I was really lucky to meet some genuinely great people.
DK: When we shot all of those photos you had a giant beard. Do you think that will make a comeback?
JP: When I looked back at some other photos with that beard I was like ‘damn that was a wild look.’ I’d never let my hair or my beard grow, so I just said ‘fuck it’ let’s see how it is and I just let it grow and I had a shaved head.
In those pictures I look like some type of monk or something or like a yogi, but I think I prefer it like it is now.
DK: What are you painting right now? (He was painting on our call)
JP: Right now I'm painting a portrait of Shaquille O’Neal. I have this show coming up in July that’s going to be some basketball portraits.
DK: What got you into painting?
JP: I’ve been drawing and painting for forever. For as long as I can remember, but I’ve been a painter full-time professionally since 2020.
DK: What changed?
JP: COVID happened and I had a lot more time to do it. Before 2020 I was working as a bartender and had an operations job in New York and I would just draw and paint with my free time. Whenever I was home I’d work on a painting. I’d be out and always carrying my notebooks with me so I was always drawing. Then COVID shut everything down and I lost both of my jobs and I was able to just focus full-time on painting.
When I was bartending I’d work until 4AM and then get home at 5:30AM and when I’d get home I’d just work as much as I could on a painting and then go to sleep and then start over the next day. I always like to go to coffee shops and draw and be out of the house. It’s kind of hard for me to draw at home. I’d go to work and draw before work or on lunch breaks.
Even being exhausted when I’d get home at like 5:30AM, I’d always try to get even just a little bit of work done on a painting. At that time I could get maybe one decent sized painting done a month.
DK: How did you start selling works?
JP: I had a little bit of sales online through people finding me on social media. But the first time I ever sold work and showed work was in L.A. with Danny First. He found me on Instagram and sent me a message and invited me to do his residency. And that was the first time that I’d ever been in a professional art setting. I didn’t even really know what a residency was at that time. I was so anxious to do a show because I was like, I have to stand and show people my work and it was vulnerable in a way, but it was COVID so I didn’t have an opening with people there that I’d have to talk to which alleviated some of the pressure. People had to do private viewings or view the show online.
DK: Do you feel like the internet really helped to propel your art?
JP: For me, for sure. My introduction to this whole world was through someone reaching out to me on Instagram because they saw my work there. That’s how it started. As terrible as I think social media can be, it was very powerful and life-changing for me for sure.
Through Danny I met Stefan Simchowitz. Stefan really helped me to be able to focus on my work and develop. That was the next crucial step for me. After the residency with Danny, what was I going to do? Go back to New York and when I can work again, keep painting? But Stefan really showed me the possibilities. There was a moment when I met him where I think he might have asked me, ‘What are you going to do?’ and I was like ‘I don’t know, maybe find another residency or I don’t know maybe go back to work and keep painting.’ And he was like ‘No no, you’re an artist now.’ Then he invited me to do a residency with him which was going to be a couple months, but then turned into 8 months. That’s when I started to see what this all could be. It gave me some stability and confidence and freedom to focus and develop.
DK: The art world is a pretty complicated place. How has that been for you navigating your way through it all as an artist?
JP: I try not to think about it really.
I feel like if I’m making the best work I can make, things will kind of fall together.
I try to just really focus on my work.
DK: Could you speak on some of your process?
JP: The heart of the whole process is in the drawing. I try to work everything out in the drawings before I get to painting. I’m meticulous with the preparation. If I don’t have something worked out on paper beforehand, at least the structure of a painting, it's really hard for me to do it and then within a painting I can improvise a bit.
David Katzinger: How long did you live in your house in Laurel Canyon?
Julian Pace: I lived there for close to 3 years. I loved that house. The kitchen was terrible, but I loved that area and that neighborhood. But at a certain point, that house held a lot of weight and so I had to leave and change my environment and get the fuck out of there. It was kind of an escape from the chaos of the city while still being very close to it. At home it was quiet and had lots of trees. I had my lemons and I grew plants outside and it was sort of a little sanctuary.
DK: And where are you now?
JP: I’m in Washington now. I wanted to get out of L.A. and all of my family is in Walla Walla. I wanted to move back to New York, but I figured what’s the rush? Why not spend time with family and just slow down and have a place where I could focus on my work and on myself. It’s been a very grounding place. Things move a lot slower and it’s just beautiful. My mom grew up here and she’s still here and all of the aunts and uncles and cousins. Seeing them has been really nice. I haven’t lived in the same place as them in years so it’s been good to be connected with them and have a little bit of tranquility.
Basically my day goes. I get up and I go to the gym and then I’ll go to a coffee shop somewhere and then I come home and paint. In between that I’ll mix in family time. I wasn’t really taking care of myself mentally, emotionally and physically. Now I’m in the gym 5 days a week. Being here has really been to help me focus on myself and my work and my family and a big part of that is taking care of my body and eating well. It’s been really beneficial for my mental. I feel much more grounded and healthy than I have in a long time. To understand all is to forgive all and I've been working on understanding myself.
Drawing has been cathartic for me. When I’m feeling uncomfortable, drawing gives me some peace.
DK: Being a self-taught artist, how did you figure out all of the mediums that you use within your paintings?
JP: I got started with a pocket sized notebook and I have a little travel watercolor kit. There’s a pencil and a little jar of water and a brush and some colored pencils in there too. I can make drawings like that anywhere and can fit everything I need into a pocket. I started with those simple materials, but at a certain point it wasn’t really scratching the itch. I wanted to make something bigger. I always start with acrylic so that I can move faster and get a base layer down and get the structure all right how it needs to be and from there I can finish up and get into the details with the oil. I like the idea of oil paint because all of the great masters use oil paint and I didn’t know much about it when I started.
DK: When you’re looking at another artist's work or even your own work. How important would you say the process is to understanding the art?
JP: I think knowing the process can enhance it in some ways, but in other ways maybe it takes away from the mystery if you know too much about it. Everyone’s process is different. What you’re trying to do is create your own cocktail recipe and everyone develops it differently down to what kind of canvas or linen or paper or how many layers of gesso you use.
Everyone has to find their own recipe and it takes time.
DK: You have such a specific style. Can you or would you even want to try and describe your visual language?
JP: I don’t really know how to describe it. I have a lot of influences and then it’s an amalgamation of things I’ve seen and my own lack of formal training that leads to that. I’m not like an expert in anatomical painting. It’s like a cheat code. You just do what you do.
DK: Do you gravitate towards the athlete portraits or is that something that just more people are asking you to do?
JP: I’m not that interested in projecting any of my thoughts on it. I think it’s another aspect of my observations of the world that I’ve come up in. These sports figures being these titans or modern day gladiators. I’ve gone back and forth with how I feel about it and with how it relates to tribalism. Maybe it has a negative connotation if I say it like that, but I don’t necessarily mean it in a negative way.
It’s an observation of our world and my world at least, the way I’ve seen the world. These figures become larger than life and they’re such a focal point for a lot of people’s everyday life.
It’d be a lot easier if I was like, oh yeah I’m a huge Shaq fan and always have been.
DK: Because I know you, I see a lot of the humor in your paintings.
JP: There’s a lot of tongue and cheek in there. I was thinking about this the other day, but someone said to me, ‘I can’t tell if you’re glorifying or criticizing consumerism’ and I thought that was such a good compliment.
I think I can be a critic about a thing while also being fully complacent in it and fully participating in it.
I always played sports growing up and I had my teams, but I could never rattle off stats. I don’t follow it like that. I’m more interested in the cultural aspect of it. I think sometimes it’s bread and circus.
DK: What’s that?
JP: Like a mass distraction tool. Which may be a little too pessimistic to say because it’s not just that.
Bread and circus basically means that as long as people are fed and entertained we can do whatever we want, is how I take it.
I think a lot of artists think they need to make stands and be overtly political. I think a lot of what I do, I mean it is very political in its own way, but I don’t see a need to be like this means this and capitalism man… ya know.
DK: You just did a show recently with a bunch of different cultural figures holding their dogs. What was the impetus for that?
JP: I did a self portrait of me holding Gypsy and I just wanted to do more portraits of people holding dogs and in that show it was all of these old artists holding their dogs. The paintings become a vessel for me to play and experiment.
I was going through a tough time mentally and emotionally and those paintings became another cathartic thing for me to do. But even that I don’t think people really want to hear. They were really a tool for me to practice and be able to make some smaller paintings. Like I said before, I learn from every painting that I make, and from that series of artists holding their dogs I really figured out some new stuff at that scale.
I just want to do my thing and have people take it how they take it. I don’t necessarily want to or have to put my two cents into it. I just like to paint. There’s this pressure on people in the arts to say something and it’s gotta be deep and mean this or that. I’m not such a wordsmith.
DK: You always put quotes on your notebooks. Can you explain that and what those quotes mean?
JP: I think it’s something that I’m thinking about at the time when I start a new notebook. Maybe it’s inspirational or maybe it’s reflective of something I’m seeing in the world or of how I’m feeling at the time. Because it’s something that I always have with me, it’s something I see all the time.
Right now, my notebook says “To understand all is to forgive all.” I think meditating on that has really helped me to be more understanding and more forgiving which is good.
It’s very poignant for where I’m at now in life. I’ve been through some very hard emotional times recently. I’ll jump between anger and sadness and confusion, but I think that idea to really understand and to take a look at the situation and at myself helps me to mitigate negative feelings about it.
I’ve felt all of the emotions possible and I’ve been meditating on that idea and trying to understand myself most importantly which has helped me grow as a person. It’s always a work in progress. That in particular is a good example of what I usually write on the covers of these notebooks.
DK: Do you want to speak on what it meant for you to have your dad at your show in L.A.?
JP: My dad lives in Italy and hadn’t been to L.A. since the 70’s and he hadn’t been to visit me since I’d been there and I had a show open while he was there. He was in Seattle visiting my brother and his kids. It was nice for him to see what I’ve been up to. For him to see the culmination of the show coming together was really special and I was happy to have him there.
DK: What did it mean for him?
JP: I don’t know. We didn’t really talk about it. I think it makes him happy to see me doing something that I love. Honestly he’s probably like, you’re doing this and making money, OK you’re solid.
DK: So it wasn’t like you had to convince him that this was a viable career for you?
JP: Not at all. My parents are very supportive. His thing is, as long as you're happy. My parents have been very supportive my whole life. There was never any pressure. They’ve always kind of let me be me. It probably makes them happy to see that ‘me doing me’ is working out. I don’t think he’s seen any of the shows that I’ve done. When you’re doing a show there’s a lot of attention on you and it can be kind of a whirlwind, so it was nice to have my dad and my brother and nephews there.
DK: Everyone navigates their journey through their profession differently. Looking back at how you got to where you are now, is there anything you’d maybe try differently or would there be any advice that you’d give to someone getting into selling work as an artist?
JP: I think advice can be very dangerous. There’s a lot of different paths to take and I would never assume that my path would work for somebody else. Ken Taylor said to me once something that I thought was good advice and I don’t think he was even intending for it to be advice, but he just said, “Pretty much all of your problems are solved in the studio” meaning that you have to make work, make more work and don’t overthink.
I think a lot of people love to give advice, but I’m careful with it. You have to make the final call with everything because it’s you, it’s all you. You have to be authentic to yourself, but that’s pretty universal.
