Julia Pott: Whale Hill

Whale Hill, by Julia Pott.
15% of the sale of this print goes to the Transportation Alternatives.

Julia Pott graduated from Kingston University in 2007 with a BA in illustration and animation, and is currently completing her MA in animation at the Royal College of Art in London. She works from both London and New York (so that she can satiate her Lucky Charms addiction), and mainly creates ridiculous music videos and short films about anthropomorphic animals trying to feel their way through tricky relationships. Julia’s animation direction includes work for Skins, Etsy, The Decemberists, Bat for Lashes, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Malibu Rum and Picador. When she’s not working, you can find Julia roaming around in natural history museums or eating hoards of sugar at the movies.



About the print:
I wanted to create an atmospheric world that was inspired by English beach towns. While I was creating the piece, it was brought to my attention by a few people that I’m not very good at sharing things (whether it be my dessert or lending someone a book), so I created the fox as a version of myself, keeping the houses and ponies to himself.

This is an inkjet print on archival 192 gsm paper. Each was signed and numbered by the artist.

PURCHASE $40!

What has inspired you recently?
These days I am looking a lot at Native American patterns, European landscapes, and Estonian animation. I've also been looking a lot at coming of age movies for an upcoming film project.



Why did you choose to pair Transportation Alternatives with your print?
I chose Transportation Alternatives as my charity because I really believe that we’re not making enough of a difference when it comes to reducing our emissions. Coming from London, I definitely feel it is not safe to cycle around the city. I’m now living in New York, and it is crazy how many more cars there are here and how much pollution you can feel in the air – not to mention how dangerous it is for cyclists to get around. Although people do ride bikes here, you are not really encouraged to do so, and biking is definitely not as common here as it is in Europe. It seems that Transportation Alternatives offers sensible, easy to achieve solutions to the problem.

How have you seen art transform the world around you?
Art makes a huge difference: it can be a kind of therapy, it can brighten up a room, make a difference to someone feeling low. It is a great skill that people can share with others.



If you could pick one artist to mentor you, who would it be?
I'd love to be mentored by Priit Parn. I love the way his mind works - his films make absolutely no sense and yet perfect sense at the same time. I almost won his signed sweaty sock in a competition once, so I guess I’m halfway there!

Who are some artists you think people should know about?
Luke Best, Rob Ryan, Carson Ellis, Priit Parn, Igor Kovalyov, Josh Cochran, Micah Lidberg, David O'Reilly, Kirsten Lepore.