Julie Mehretu

          Julie is a very interesting and intelligent artist who uses systems very well. I was invited into her world in Dublin during the Art: 21 Power video. Her use of systems centers on swirls, overlapping shapes, and using positive vs negative space. She layers her paintings with shapes and swirls sometimes only 2 or 3 times. Other times, it may be 5 layers or more. The layers elevate her paintings, and create a good first impression. Yet, it also makes you want to study it longer, and the more you study it the more you discover in the underlying images. I also found it interesting that for one of her paintings she began with traces of google map pictures from New York, and Tokyo. These 2 places have such great architecture to build upon that I can only imagine what the painting looked like. Lastly, I was intrigued by the fact that and her partner are both artist who live together and create art together. Her and her partner both spoke about how often their paintings and projects seeped into each other, and evolved together. I feel that her art is beautiful, particularly the one she is painting at the end of the documentary. It gives me a feeling of hope.