Julie Woodard - Public & Installation Art

Tidal Rock (May 2024-present) PHL

This rocking chair was designed for the Philadelphia International Airport, where it currently resides between terminals A East and B. It features all repurposed textiles and was designed for passengers who are looking for a playful and immersive moment of relaxation during their travels. A large wave at the rear and smaller waves on the sides roll as people rock. A hand quilted kelp forest blankets the interior back, and a complimentary design extends to the arm rest area. This piece was commissioned as part of PHL's Art at the Airport program.

Trail of Love (February 2024-present) South Philly

This marks the 4th year that I wasn't able to call my mom to sing Happy Birthday on the first day of February. Almost everything I create is in one way or another inspired by my mom and features her belongings and on February 1st, I try to do something intentional that channels her spirit & puts it out into the world. Each of these hearts includes an affirmation—either something my mama wrote about, something she said, or a message she’d wish to hear repeated. For instance, every morning as I left for school she’d say, “Make it a good day.” While I scoffed at the sentiment as an angsty teen, I developed a deep appreciation for it as an adult. In her final months, my mom & I took turns texting it to each other and it is a mantra I seek to live into everyday. On February 1st, I released eight of these stitched post-consumer plastic love messages out into the world. Both a meditative act and a capsule street art project, they trace a path along some of the streets my mom & I explored together. Each site-specific message marks a mural, mosaic, or local eatery that we visited during her visits to Philly. The process was both heartfelt and a little heartbreaking. I hope these tokens are discovered by the people who need them the most. Perhaps one of those people is you. Streets Dept Lead Contributor Eric Dale tagged along and captured the installation photos.

Pockets of Light (2023-present) Delaware River Waterfront

In order to grow, we all need a little light. The Delaware River Waterfront Trail offers just that—for both people and nature. Pockets of Light, is a series of hand- and machine-sewn artworks made from post-consumer materials. These pieces depict the Delaware River and some of my favorite native plants found along the waterfront, and range in styles from hyper-realistic sculptures, to kinetic collages, to abstractly layered plastics that mimic stained glass. "Wayfinding waterscapes" along the Delaware pathway guide you to installations at four public piers accompanied by site-specific interactives created by experience designer Eric the Puzzler. Through eye-catching artwork, unique puzzles, local natural history, and participation prizes, Eric and I seek to enhance the nurturing effects of the waterfront, provide a fun way to forge a deeper connection with your surroundings, and take a little time to enjoy the light.

Interested in public art? Native plants? Creative reuse? Sewing? The outdoors? Natural history? Puzzles? Philadelphia? Fun prizes? This project is for you. Start by finding one of the plant installations on the piers or one of 9 the “wayfinding waterscapes” we’ve installed along the trail. Here’s a map! Now go run, walk, bike, scoot, SEPTA, or carpool your way over to the waterfront! Please note that as of September 2023, the piece at Race Street Pier has closed.

This project was commissioned by the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation

Press:

Pockets of Light uses trash to highlight nature along the Delaware River Waterfront-WHYY

A New Interactive Public Art Project On The Delaware River Waterfront Connects Visitors To Their Surroundings- Streets Dept

Pockets of Light presented by the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation

Pockets of Light: a trash-to-treasure tale in the intersection of art and the environment- Green Philly News

Joy Grows on You (2023-2024) South Philadelphia

Last year, as the summer blooms faded in my neighborhood, I wanted to extend the sense of joy that plantings can provide. Created out of a salvaged, broken beach pail, a torn beach ball, single use plastics, thread, and wire, this piece grew along a fence in Columbus Square park, adjacent to a planting of echinacea, in which is it inspired. When a tree fell on the fence in June 2024, I de-installed the work in anticipation of the damaged fence being removed. While it's made of trash, it is not trash, and will be growing somewhere new soon. Stay tuned!

Read Me A World (Fall 2023) Liberty Lands Park

Created by Marisol Rosa-Shapiro, Read Me a World was an experiment in public art, creative placemaking, and building a common infrastructure for public acts of intimacy and connection. With the support of a cohort of Facilibrarians, readers of all ages and reading levels were invited to connect with their expressive voices and to read aloud to loved ones within unique, artist-designed, pop-up reading nook installations throughout Philadelphia’s Liberty Lands Park. It premiered in the 2023 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Free Fringe Philly, and was a “Panel Pick” in the Performances for Young Audiences cohort of the Cannonball Festival. I designed one of the five pop-up nooks, entitled "The Open Sea." Using post-consumer plastics, upcycled textiles, broken umbrellas, and salvaged furniture, I created large-scale waves, coral reef reading shelves, tactile seaweed, and Edna Agnes, a kinetic sculpture octopus puppet.

Accumulation (2021) East Passyunk Avenue

3' x 5'

Repurposed plastic, cotton, denim, polyester, paper, upholstery blends, and viscose and cotton embroidery thread. Hand and machine sewn.

Available for purchase.

Created for and displayed at Good Buy Supply, 1737 E Passyunk Ave, Philadelphia, PA from 2021-2022

This landscape was created for display in the window of Good Buy Supply, an eco-friendly small business along the East Passyunk Business Corridor. Often a symbol of natural beauty and wonder, this mountain scene is a literal accumulation of community trash, most which I collected within a 6-block radius of the store. Viewers were encouraged to consider how their decisions as consumers impact the environment. As demonstrated by the items you’ll find at Good Buy Supply, the piece seeks to draw awareness to options for reducing one's ecological footprint and suggests that addressing our complex and systematic problems with waste is a mountain worth climbing.

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