Julia Vanderpool

Artist Bio:
Julia Vanderpool is a Mount Pleasant artist whose work spans serigraphs, textiles, and film photography, unified by her interest in storytelling, color, and material process.

A photographer since picking up her first Nikon in 1986, Julia spent nearly four decades behind the lens. First, working as a photojournalist for four newspapers, later transitioning to beach and school portraits with b/w film and digital photography, while stepping away from her journalism career to raise four daughters, finally returning to her creative practice in 2024.

Her reentry into artmaking began in the summer of 2023 when she walked into Redux to tour the black-and-white photography lab and inquire about darkroom rental. She joined as a year-long unlimited member with a meaningful goal: to teach her youngest daughter, who was graduating high school, the film photography, darkroom printing, and street shooting process. From there, she took every available class, falling into silkscreen printing through three courses with Taylor and additional indigo dye workshops.

Encouraged by a fellow Redux artist, Julia applied for the South Carolina Arts Commission Emerging Artist Grant she was awarded the FY25 $1,800 grant, culminating in her debut solo exhibition at Redux in June 2025: Greyscale to Chroma: Vibrant Silkscreen Prints Reimagining Black & White Narratives, bringing her photojournalism archive to life through richly layered, color-saturated screen prints.

Julia continues to develop both strands of her practice, creating complex multi-layered serigraphs and exploring the history and craft of natural indigo dyeing through expressive fabric pieces and wearable art sold at markets across the Lowcountry. In 2025 she was juried into the South Carolina Artisan Center.

Currently in development, BLUEPRINT: A Window into the Beginning of Human Life is a new mixed-media project combining cyanotype photography, serigraphy, and body casting of the pregnant form, exploring the beauty and vulnerability of new life.

Julia also teaches ongoing indigo dyeing workshops at Redux, sharing her process and enthusiasm for hands-on craft with the community.

Artist Statement:
My work is about layering… color, image, and time. I pull from my archive of black-and-white negatives, building new meaning through silkscreen printing, and continue to shoot black-and-white film, driven by the love of capturing a moment in time while street shooting. My textile work explores the depth and unpredictability of natural indigo dyeing, and living in the Lowcountry, I am conscious of indigo’s deep and complex roots in this region. I am continually drawn to learning more about its history and process, and that ongoing discovery is what keeps the work alive.