Born in 1986 in Baie-Comeau, an industrial city on Quebec's North-Shore, Julie-Mila Bouffard has been drawing and painting since a young age. Her studies in visual arts at the Cégep de Rivière-du-Loup, from 2003 until 2006, allowed her to deepen her technique and brought her to complete a Bachelor's degree in visual and media arts later at Université Laval in Québec from 2007 to 2010. Following these studies, the artist wanted to pass on her knowledge to others and decided to obtain a diploma of higher education in collegial teaching in 2012.

Her work will afterward be presented in the book " State of the art - Artist’s Book " published by the Aberta gallery in Portugal and in the « Hidden Treasure Art Magazine Yearbook 2014 » published by HT Art Magazine Publishing. It will also be shown within the framework of solo exhibitions at the restaurant Bistro Bizz’arts in 2013 and at the Brasserie artisanale La Souche in 2014. The young woman has taken part in several collective exhibitions in Quebec and became an artist at Ni Vu Ni Cornu gallery and at Le Bourget gallery.

Her work tends to focus around female, often provocative characters. The artist aims for her work to convey a sense of femininity, a sensual energy and even sexuality. She’s working mainly with drawings both in manual and digital media, acrylic painting as well as screen printing, the latter a technique for which she’s dedicating a strong passion. Julie-Mila is moreover an active member at Engramme, a self-managed artists center who has dedicated itself for the last 40 years to the promotion of original prints.

Rather than using this technique as production of works on a massive scale, she uses it to create single pieces. She wants to bring screen printing to another level and to present it in her own way. She does not want her work to be reproductions in several copies, but rather have each piece to be unique in its own way. In this manner, she can create an interesting contrast between a technique of mechanical reproduction and it’s expression in uniqueness.

The artist also approaches the theme of the double image on several of her works. She voluntarily gives a very graphic and linear aspect to her works and enjoys making her characters interact with images of a much more decorative nature, with motives to arrive at a visual solution between figuration and abstraction.

The goal of Julie-Mila is for her art to speak by itself with its energy. Seduced, shocked or empowered, she wants the viewer to feel strong emotions, the most important of which being the sheer exhilaration she herself experiences when in the act of creation.

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