Artist Julia Trops is selling off work from her RCA studio this weekend; her work is also in Cannery Coffee this month at a discounted rate.

After a decade in her Rotary Centre for the Arts studio, artist Julia Trops is closing one door to reopen a new one.

Trops has been a staple in the building from it’s inception and this weekend, as she fire sales artwork to raise money for an artist-in-residency in Italy next summer, she will likely be a little introspective about leaving her home-away-from-home at Studio 113.

“It is time to move on,” she said. “I need to get out into the world.”

Known primarily for her colourful figurative work, Trops paints a very idillic picture of her next career phase, which kicks off with a month-long residency offered by the Bau Institute.

The institute runs two residency programs, one in Italy and the other in New York, and the home where she will stay in Ortanto, Italy, at the very southeastern tip of the boot, sports a living and working space downstairs and sleeping area up.

Presumably there will be plenty of quiet space to reflect as she begins her new project, Venus is Rising, which will look at the rise of feminine power.

A founder of the Livessence drawing group, she’s helped start the Arts Awards, built the Erotic Art Show from the ground up and lent her voice and artwork to countless causes in her time at the RCA, making her mark on the building and the local creative landscape.

She is currently curating the (largely) figurative work on display at Ex Nihilo Vineyards and has sold work all over the world by jumping online. But after working on nudes, producing up to 2000 works per year for a decade, with a brief dalliance in flowers, she’s come to a conclusion.

“I’m rediscovering my own feminine voice and feminine power,” she said. “…And I believe we are heading toward a matriarchy.”

As a 12-year veteran of the Canadian Air Force, Trops says she’s spent her time on the other side of the fence, living in a very patriarchal world. Now researching and reading various philosophical, historical and anthropological texts, she sees the world heading toward an era where the women hold more power.

In the meantime, she will return to her home-based studio to document this shift in her own way.

~~ A Message from Julia Trops:

First on the list is that after ten years as a resident artist, I am leaving the Rotary Centre for the Arts. Now just because I am leaving the RCA, does not mean I am stopping being an artist… far from it…

And yes, it has been a blast. I met so many people, and the purpose of the Rotary Centre, to foster and nurture emerging artists, I feel has been completed in my case.

When I first came to the RCA, I was fresh out of university, new to Kelowna. I had applied for the RCA in March 2002, the same week I heard about it, and haunted Randy and Carlyn’s offices steadily until I found out I was accepted.

I had so many dreams and thoughts and wishes and goals when I went in to the studio that August 1 – eight years on my own, and the last year and a half with three friends-  I am very proud to say I think I accomplished 95% of what I was hoping and more that I did not even imagine. There are life drawing sessions now within Livessence, which grew from my drawing sessions – man that was hard work to get going – twice a week for two years, how did I do it, I am not sure even now. Participated on the board for the Arts Council, and then later helped to establish the Arts Awards with Corinne Zawaduk and Sharon McCoubrey. Still on the board for the Kelowna Museums Society – and trust me, if they were all fuddy duddys I wouldn’t be there still. But these guys are a blast – not your typical museum crowd.

I met a tremendous number of people from all walks of life – I remember I was so shy at the very beginning, barely could talk to anyone. (Okay, I am still shy, but not as bad!) I hid in my studio most of the time and worked my ass off, both online and off. People – including other artists – thought I was crazy for spending as much time as I did developing my online presence, selling work to begin with on ebay to pay bills. I am so glad I did that – it opened doors for tolerance that I would never expected. Many of my ebay artist friends I still keep in contact with – I find them incredibly invaluable as a source for common sense and insight. …When I think of what I have accomplished in ten years, all I can say is I am so glad I was in the RCA, it gave me the freedom and the confidence to spread my wings, it gave me the support and structure necessary, and it gave me the belief in myself, because they believed in me.

What a gift, and I thank you!

Julia is going to Italy for an artist residency in June 2012. The port town of Otranto will be her studio for the month where she will be researching and creating works based on the myths and stories of the female.  More information can be found at http://juliatrops.com/2011/11/23/sketched-out-studio-sale/