While most artists wait for inspiration to create art, Julia Pozsgai can conjure her muse anytime she wants.
When asked where the inspiration for her pieces come from, she say it simply comes from “my brain.”
Pozsgai, 29, is a local artist who currently has her own one woman show at Bump Wine Cellar and Gallery.
Of course, Pozsgai’s is no ordinary art; and she is no ordinary artist.
Pozsgai makes her home at Sweetwater Spectrum, the community on First Street West that serves the needs of adults living with autism. What Pozsgai sometimes lacks in expressing in words, she excels at expressing in art.
Pozsgai’s business manager Gina Roman describes the one-woman show as “amazing.”
“For any artist to have a one woman show is incredible,” says Roman. “She’s a very smart person. She’s good with colors; that becomes her language.”
The theme for the show is paintings focusing on candlelight and fire and showing how they can bring peace and unite people. Pozsgai described the pieces as bringing people together through the “zen” in light.
“It makes me feel zen; zen is peaceful,” Pozsgai says. “Come to my show and learn about peace and zen.”
Peace is the reason Pozsgai paints in the first place, and has been doing it for as long as she can remember. She says art connects her to the world, releases her ideas, brings her joy.
And, she says, it helps her earn money.
The owners of Bump, Geordie and Mieko Carr, feature a different local artist every month, and are booked almost a year in advance.
This show is Pozsgai’s favorite because it has drawn the biggest crowd. On the show’s opening night on Aug. 5, Pozsgai sold five paintings and 10 prints and was surrounded by members of the community, other artists, friends and family.
“It was really well received. Just phenomenal. The pieces are almost too cheap,” said Bump employee Aaron Loganathan. “Looking at her work, it’s really so fantastic and captivating.”
Pozsgai’s art website is called Pansy Creations – named after her favorite flower, a pansy, because a pansy pattern made her feel comfortable as a child. She not only creates paintings but also ceramics, fabric art and jewelry.
Pozsgai enjoys her independence living at Sweetwater Spectrum. She has her own studio in Sonoma as well, and has a schedule for when she can be there to work.
“Her autism is a positive when it comes to her discipline of working on a regular schedule and also in her not having inhibitions or getting too caught up in perfectionism,” Roman says.
Pozsgai loves to stick to schedule as well as sticking to the details in her pieces. In fact, she enjoys the intricate, detailed pieces the best.
She planned this show over a year ago after being inspired by the book, “Imagine a Night,” with the help of her art guides.
“Julia decides what she wants to do, they just sort of guide her,” Roman says. “She learns very quickly.”
Roman is extremely impressed that she planned this a year ago and stuck with it until it became a reality.
Besides the book, Pozsgai is heavily influenced by the earth, birds, nature and the sky. She has memories as a child of visiting an observatory, and that is when her interest in art started.
Roman can’t help but be impressed with Pozsgai’s work and how her disability is actually a strength in many ways. She is able to not sit and overthink her work – but rather unleash all her creativity onto a page without overthinking.
“I’m inspired by her enthusiasm; she cheers herself on,” Roman says. “She inspires me all the time to just do it.”
Gallery hours are 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday to Monday, through Aug. 29. Bump Cellars is at 521 Broadway, Sonoma.
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