Julika Lackner – Artist – Los Angeles, California

I’ve been watching the wonderful artwork of Julika Lackner from afar for a long while now.  I’ve put in many hours losing myself in her unique style of painting.  It seems to always have me dreaming of the images she paints.  I’m consistently blown away by the colors, layers and eye popping artwork that she produces.  Her Instagram account is one of my favorite treasures.

Julika’s art is currently on display at the Forrest Lawn Museum – Forrest Lawn-Glendale.  The display entitled – Evening Mile has showcased her artwork since January 29th and runs through May 1st.  In fact, if you are reading this and you are in the area, Julika will also be there on April 30th from 3-5PM – so don’t miss your chance to meet this amazing artist in person.

I had the opportunity to catch up with Julika to talk about some of her background, artwork and inspirations.  Julika tells me that she grew up in a really artistic family.  She says “My parents were in Theatre, my brother’s a musician and even back before that, all of my family were in the arts.”

Being able to see what a great artist she is I wondered what some of her first inspirations were.  Julika tells me, “In the beginning it was interior light.  Subway stations and weird big spaces and how the light abstracts that space.  I lived in Berlin for a while and it was the subway stations and how the light reflects off of the tiles and stuff.  So that was my first real body of work.”

As we start talking about her latest series of works, she tells me that this series is called – “Twilight”.  I cannot think of a better name for these magnificent pieces of art.  She explains, “I started it in the beginning of the pandemic because before that I would travel places.  I would go to Yellowstone.  I’d go to Death Valley.  I’d go to these big epic places and then try to paint them.  Then when we all got grounded it brought everything close.  It was like a blessing in disguise.  We live on a hill and I can see all these hills and I can see all these lights.  I had painted the night sky back in grad school and it was like a return to that.  It was that lonely part early on in the pandemic but you could see everyone around you and their lights.  So I feel like they have this really warm glow about them.”

Glow they absolutely do.

In fact, it was this series of paintings that first caught my eye and I started following her IG page.  Every time Julika would post a shot of a new painting I would stare at the picture for long spells of time.  There was one in particular that I couldn’t bring myself to stop thinking about.  It was around the time that I was finishing up a new song with Jeff Schroeder (Smashing Pumpkins) and Producer Electropoint, that I started to think about how great it would be if I were able to use it as the album artwork.  

I showed Jeff and he was totally into the picture and said, “This has that California vibe written all over it!”  I felt like it really captured the essence of the song better than any other idea I had for the cover art.  I am grateful that Julika allowed us to use it for the single and in my opinion ads so much to the whole experience.  If there’s anyone else out there like me that gets lost in a song while looking at the cover art then please send your compliments over to Julika.  This picture is a testament that art is more than just an mage.  It’s an experience.

Julika has a terrific website that showcases her dynamic range of artwork.  Set aside some time and take a trip, it’s definitely worth your attention.  Who knows, you might find something that will make a nice addition to a wall in your house!

Julika Lacker: https://www.julikalackner.com/

Forrest Lawn Museum: https://forestlawn.com/exhibits-and-events/museum/

-Tommy Marz

You can find Tommy on Twitter

For those curious – this is how the artwork turned out!