About the Artist: Julia Cline

Julia Cline is a writer who happens to paint. Born in North Carolina with a biology teacher for a mother and a father who loved to wander the woods on the weekends, she grew attached to the flora, fauna, dampness and shade of the natural areas in North Carolina. Now she explores the dry, sun-filled hills of California. And, as her parents filled their yard with the native plants of North Carolina, Julia and her husband fill their yard with California natives. 

Julia’s undergraduate major was chemistry. She earned a Masters in Theology at Columbia Seminary and a Ph.D in Social Psychology at the University of Georgia.  She is deeply interested in the social development of children and adults. This interest manifests itself in the longer books and stories she writes. Mrs. Wilkers’ Class and Superheroes (currently unpublished) follow a trio friends as they navigate the world of fifth grade and beyond.  In Mrs. Wilkers’ class the trio, Zach, Danielle and Shebani band together to cope with a teacher they don’t like very much.  In Superheroes, Zach and Danielle rally to support Shebani when her mother goes through a psychotic break.  Julia’s books are positive in outlook, though the children in them may deal with some serious events, such as Shebani’s mother’s illness and the death of Danielle’s grandmother. Julia is working on a third book in this series that centers around Zach’s  tenacious younger sister Alyson. 

Julia’s latest picture books include Come Walk With Me, a poem about all the things  to be discovered while walking along in the natural world, and Kotobuki, the story of a tiny kitten and the human family he exhausts. Bubble!, another illustrated poem, follows the short but interesting lives of bubbles from the moment they are blown by “a breathless child” until they die in a burst of sudsy droplets.  In another book about cats,  Where is Portulacca Sleeping?, Julia imagines an extended encounter between Portulacca, her parents’ much beloved cat, long since passed away, and Loki, with whom Julia and her husband currently shares their home. 

All of Julia’s work, both as a writer and a visual artist, is fueled by her love of the out-of-doors and the beings that enrich her life, be they feline, canine, human, domesticated or completely wild!