Julia "Joules" was born in Longview, Washington and went to Western Washington University where she earned a BS in Visual Communications with focus in computer illustration and animation. In 1998 she won Real Networks International Flash Animation Award with an animation called “Momm!!”. The jury included Stan Lee and Bill Plympton.

​After a twenty year hiatus Joules has re-emerged into showing her new style of painting using hair picks, chop sticks, meat forks and other non-traditional objects to apply paint to canvas. The natural affect of these tools are groupings of impasto strokes that resemble Pointillism and Impressionism. She paints the natural scenery of the Pacific Northwest. Many of her paintings are memories of time spent at her family's cabin on Mount St. Helens before the eruption in 1980 when the cabin was destroyed. A book encapsulating these memories as paintings and stories is in progress.

Julia (Joules) Martin capturing forest valley photos to paint near Stehekin, WA. Photo by Sarah Martin.