Julie Lapping Rivera

Julie Lapping Rivera began her career in New York, working as a teaching artist with the Studio In a School Association, the Museum of Modern Art, and at the Lincoln Center Institute. Julie earned her MFA in Painting from Pratt Institute and her BFA in Printmaking from the University of Massachusetts. She was awarded a Fellowship in Drawing from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and has received Arts in Education grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Art residencies include Soaring Gardens in Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, and La Muse, in La Bastide, France.

Julie moved to western Massachusetts in 2001, where she continues to explore her art and teaching practices.  She is on the faculty of Zea Mays Printmaking in Florence, Massachusetts, runs Feather Press Studio in Leverett, MA, and supports art education students at Mt. Holyoke College.

Julie is fascinated by the meditative process of carving woodblocks. Woodcut combined with collage is her primary medium. Her current project is a collection of woodcut portraits honoring women in history. Originally inspired by the New York Times’ “Overlooked” series, it focuses on women who have not received the recognition their contributions merit. Each portrait is accompanied by a poem written by a woman poet. In this and in her previous work Julie pursues an open-ended narrative thread, drawing on an interior world of thoughts, feelings and dreams, a world inviting contemplation and connection.