WELLFLEET – “I don’t know the inside of Julia’s mind,” said Sky Freyss-Cole, a friend of artist Julia Salinger, ”but I feel like it’s this wild and fantastic place.”
With a shock of gray hair that is almost always publicly adorned with some kind of ornamental headdress, Salinger, at 5’1” tall, stands out in a crowd. Deliberately.
At her recent opening at Wellfleet Preservation Hall, it seemed the shortest person in the room was ten feet tall.
Susie Nielson, owner of Farm Projects Gallery in Wellfleet, which has done a series of Salinger’s art shows, said, “She’s kind of out there in the world. Visually, her hair always has stuff in it. She dresses eclectically.”
Salinger, at her recent opening at Wellfleet Preservation Hall. – CAPE COD WAVE PHOTO
“She’s always been someone you notice,” said Nielsen. “She’s stirring and beautiful.”
While Salinger presents her life “as a work of art,” according to Freyss-Cole and others, there is a depth to her presence that goes far beyond her inventing her own character.
Julia Salinger, on stage with Funktapuss at the 2017 Wellfleet Oysterfest – CAPE COD WAVE PHOTO
Still, dressing up “in different costumes and going to events on the Cape,” said Salinger, is part of what she is, and what she does. “People enjoy the celebratory nature of someone who sort of stands out in a crowd,” she said of why she dresses as she does.
“Unfortunately, our society is a society of people who like to blend in and not stand out,” she said.
Not Salinger. People notice her.
She makes sure of it. But it’s more than her look which lures you in.
Salinger, with all those artistic endeavors and a scientific leaning from her childhood, is what people often call a renaissance person. But Salinger scoffs at that. “I think of Leonardo as the Renaissance,” she said.
Salinger is enamored with Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece, Mona Lisa. There are, in fact, Mona Lisas all over her house. – CAPE COD WAVE PHOTO
And yet this poet, actress, artist, installation artist & more certainly fits the classic description.
‘I think she’s an original.” said Christopher Busa, founder and editor of Provincetown Arts magazine.
“She’s a creator by nature,” said Patrick Riviere, of Truro, an actor, teacher and administrator in the theater, who has witnessed Salinger’s recent foray into acting.
“She is a very special soul,” said Riviere. “I’ve been in this business my whole life. I’ve met a lot of people. I believe she is one of the special ones.”
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