Magazine

Jessica Jane Julius

Though Jessica Jane Julius has experience in a wide variety of visual media, her focus

has always been on glasswork. She received her BFA in Glass at Tyler School of Art and her MFA in Glass at Rochester Institute of Technology. Since then she has co-founded the artists’ collected and performance group The Burnt Asphalt Family that has performed at venues across the country. She has returned to Tyler to be an Assistant Professor in Glass. Her work is inspired by fear and the culture that surrounds it; it’s haunting yet explores the depth which the human psyche can reach. Her work is not merely about fear, it’s how we view it, interpret it, and cope with it. Most of her work is dark and jagged, but the pieces she has in Confluence are golden and majestic because they have transcended the initial shock of fear to the place of enlightenment. They are celebratory, in harmony with the “ideation and innovation” theme of Confluence.

Dianne Koppisch Hricko

Printmaking and textile artist, InLiquid member Dianne Koppisch Hricko has been in school since the

mid-’60s, both as a student and teacher. She received her BS in Art Education at SUNY Buffalo in 1969 and then became a full-time art teacher at public schools in New York and Pennsylvania from 1969 to 1980. After her stints at these schools, Ms. Koppisch Hricko got her Masters Equivalent Certification at SUNY Buffalo and Albany, the Philadelphia College of Art, Tyler School of Art, and Temple University. She is currently an adjunct professor at the University of the Arts. Her fabric collages stand as examples of all the different dyeing techniques she uses: deconstructed silk screening, direct painting, discharge, and shibori. Layering these fabrics allows for an air of ambiguity: where do these layers lie on the surface and how do they interact with one another? Though her fabric collages have a degree of transparency to them, Dianne Koppisch-Hricko still utilizes bold and vibrant colors to create depth and intensity to these pieces.

Wendy Osterweil

Receiving her BS in Art Education at Temple University, Wendy Osterweil went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she earned her MFA in printmaking. During

her 30-year teaching career, Osterweil taught at Germantown Academy for 14 years, as well as performing workshops at Kutztown University, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Long Beach Island Art Foundation, and The Cooperative of Artisans Santa Elena Monteverde in Costa Rica. Wendy is a former faculty member at Tyler School of Art, where was an Associate Professor in Art Education. She is now dedicating herself to being a full-time textile artist. Her clothes are wearable collages, and she painstakingly makes each one, focusing on making each individual piece completely unique rather than quickly pumping out multiple copies of the same design. For Osterweil, quantity is not nearly as important as quality. She wants these clothes/collages to be apart of an actual wardrobe and not just static pieces of art; when they are brought out into the world they become more impactful. This decision is especially fitting, considering a lot of her designs are strongly inspired by nature and the patterns it presents.

Thora Jacobson

Thora Jacobson has been involved in the Philadelphia art scene for decades, which is how she is personally familiar with each artist featured in Confluence. After she got her BA in Art History at Trinity Washington University she spread her influence throughout Philadelphia’s art organizations. She ran the Student Center at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was Executive Director at the Fleisher Art Memorial, and the C.O.O. at Philagrafika. In addition, she was an Adjunct Instructor at Drexel and the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Art Alliance, while simultaneously running her own visual arts consulting firm. She balanced curating Confluence with her position at Mural Arts Philadelphia, where she is the Director of Design Review.

Confluence is part of CrafNOW’s 2018 Craft Month, with the theme “Making a Difference.” Be sure to join InLiquid on December 13th for the exhibition’s closing reception.

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