Julian Robbins



Traditional Works



Figure In Ink





10"x15"

ink painting


Figure in Ink playfully invokes death and liminality with a figure draped in a way reminiscent of a bed-sheet ghost, a now-ubiquitous symbol of death and ghosts, but one associated with children and children's media. This interplay of childhood imagination and the very serious subject of death and dying makes Figure in Ink an exploration of both the serious and the comical.



Self Portrait In Ballpoint Pen





18"x24"

Ballpoint pen on paper


Self Portrait in Ballpoint Pen is a self portrait I completed during a complicated phase of my life. On paper, my plans were falling into place- I was working on my undergraduate degree on a full ride scholarship, I had scheduled gender confirmation surgery in the form of a double mastectomy, but the stress of paying for the procedure and dealing with a family who were not initially supportive was eating at me. Additionally, I felt a profound sense of social isolation as medical debt was not a struggle my peers could relate to.



Witch's Dresser





18"x12"

pencil on bristol board


Witch's Dresser is an intimate look into a non-traditional spiritual practice through the practioner's gathered accoutrements.




Dysphoria





18”x24”

charcoal and chalk on toned gray paper


Dysphoria is a portrait of myself as a teenager. Gender dysphoria was the central struggle of my teenage years as I struggled to both be taken seriously by my peers and teachers and figure out who I was, as a person. The subject pulls at their face, slightly deforming it in a representation of both the desire to change the physical form and the desire to pull it off, scratch, deform, and self harm until the anguish goes away.



Drapes In Charcoal





18"x24"

Charcoal on paper



Inanimate





5"x9"

etched intaglio print



Diminutive





13"x5"

plexiglass intaglio print



Secondary casualty





18"x24"

Linocut block print



ThANATOS





9"x15"

Pastel on black paper