Jul Drake (they/them/theirs) is a Trans, Non-Binary, and Intersex collage and mixed-media artist, herbalist, and occultist based in Washington DC. Drawing on their Irish-American heritage and their Trans identity, their art is an exploration and excavation of duality and shadow. Collage became an outlet to explore gender and sexuality in high school before they were conscious of it, and they love how collage has the power to both fragment the past and build the future.

Jul has been walking between worlds their entire life, a concept known in Irish Folklore and Trans identity. They often escaped to The Otherworld (An Saol Eile) as a child, and they hope to convey through their work that the realm of Gods, fairies, ghosts and monsters mirrors our physical reality more than we may know. The frenzy of color and pattern throughout each of their pieces is intentionally playful and at times disorienting, reflecting the complex journey of returning home to yourself under systems designed for disembodiment.

Nature is also central to their work. They are currently in a 6 year program studying Irish Herbal Medicine in Ireland - a new journey of remembering land and tradition. Their work pays homage to this medicine and the devotion required to ensure they are in right relationship with it.

Liberation and justice have historically been the bedrock of collage, witchcraft and herbalism, and Jul is honored to weave these mediums to continue their legacies of empowerment, truth-telling and repair.

About My Practice:

The majority of the collages I sell and showcase within the DC art scene are 12inchx12inch on paper using paper. These pieces primarily explore nature, embodiment and the LGBTQ+ experience. They are a celebration of interconnectedness, community and the beauty of queer expression despite consistent erasure and systemic harm.

My mixed media wax collages are called “Spell Collages” because they are each a magickal ritual I perform under a full moon. I harness that energy and direct it towards community protection, healing, and liberation. I do not manipulate the wax with my hands, instead using words, herbs and intention to channel each piece. My red spell collage is a call for a Free Palestine, Congo, and Sudan and a memorial to honor the countless lives that have been sacrificed.

My mirror series that I am currently working on will be three 48inchx48inch paper/mixed media collages on canvas that combine collage and witchcraft more directly. Each piece in the series is intended to be an exorcism of shame. My first piece “Eat Your Heart Out” is imbued with the magickal purpose of revealing the most disturbed parts of our world under white colonial capitalist patriarchy. By gazing into the mirror of our own subconscious, we witness how these systems may be alive in us, below the surface, perpetuating their existence. We experience ourselves as a portal to the past, present and future. This piece began as an avenue for my own decolonial shadow work as I began exploring my lineage of ancestral harm to break these patterns, but it has evolved into a larger conversation around the collective shadow we face more egregiously each day. As my piece and our reality reflects, the monster of white colonial capitalist patriarchy consumes the sacred, primarily children, and simultaneously consumes its own soul. I hope my work helps to plant seeds of truth and healing in those that need it most so that we may expel this evil from existence permanently. And so it is.

Jul would like to especially thank the many Black and Indigenous Artists, Thought-Leaders and Creators of Color that are the architects of and the stewards behind Everything, as well as Jul’s decolonial shadow work and art. The piece “Eat Your Heart Out” which critiques white colonial capitalist patriarchy and its violent extraction is a direct result of artist and mentor Michaela Ayers who helped them find their Visual Voice, Dra. Rosales Meza of the Q’ero Inca lineage who guided them through the grief work needed to continuously divest from whiteness spiritually, emotionally, financially, and physically, and the Great Toni Morrison whose quote that “Art should be dangerous” spurred them to life.

Jul would also like to thank their family, friends, Well and Healed Ancestors and all of those in Spirit that guide and protect them everyday.

Contact:

juldrake888@gmail.com
(609)-955-4406