Julia Wickes didn’t plan to be an artist when she grew up. She really didn’t know any professional artists in her little town in southern Indiana. She thought she would be a psychiatrist, a social worker or a teacher. Always an avid reader, Wickes loved the idea of storytelling, too.

Two of their three daughters were still attending college when Wickes decided to enroll in classes at John Herron School of Art, now a part of Indiana University. (This was the school which had awarded her grandmother a scholarship in 1917!) At age 52, she completed her BFA with a major in Painting and a minor in Art History.

Following graduation, Wickes has devoted her time to fine art painting. She opened a studio in a historic, refurbished downtown building where the Stutz Bearcat was manufactured  in the 1920’s.  Wickes currently shares that studio with her husband, the photographer Jack Wickes.

Wickes says, “I invite conversation about my work. I want to know what the viewer sees. Sometimes they see something totally different  and I am always amazed at that! That’s the start of a good discussion!”

The work continues and Wickes looks back on her unexpected career as an artist. She didn’t become a psychiatrist or a social worker. She became a storyteller, a teacher, a communicator of ideas and an interpreter of observed lives.

Julia Wickes loves the idea that there are boundless stories yet to be told.