Excerpt: "You want a puff charge? It gives you energy and makes your hair grow."
Excerpt from "In Heaven Everyone Will Shake Your Hand: The Art of Julie Baldyga"
“You want a puff charge? It gives you energy and makes your hair grow,” she explains. I say yes and Julie puts her thumb and index finger together against my temple and makes a soft, high-pitched sound, “Tooooo weeeeeeee… toooo weeeee! There you go!” I don’t think I’ve ever been greeted in such a loving and generous manner. I learn that everyone who visits Julie tends to receive a puff charge, sometimes tailored for holidays, like a spooky variation on Halloween.
Puff charges are just one small part of Julie’s fascinating and complex cosmology, which involves electrical currents, nuclear power plants, engines, hair, handshakes, and perhaps most importantly, heaven. All of these elements find their way into the art Julie creates at her day job at StudioWorks. Her creativity does not end there. When she returns to her basement studio each evening, she creates heavenly people—over 400 life sized human forms made from cheesecloth, plastic bags, and other items. The heavenly people are accessorized with clothing and props. Each represents a person Julie has known throughout her life, who she believes will be made real and perfect one day in heaven, when she reunites with them.
This book is the story of Julie Baldyga, and of visual art creation at its purest and most compelling. It’s also a story about love and what is possible when a person is given the support and encouragement to be their full, authentic self. It’s told mostly through Julie’s artwork and captions, but also through her sister, Stephanie Baldyga-Stagg and brother-in-law, Bob Stagg—Julie’s biggest advocates and champions.”
--Carrie Neumayer, editor