Julia Allisson Cost

Julia Cost, born and raised on Maui, Hawaii, is the daughter of Hawaii artist Curtis Wilson Cost and granddaughter of California artist, James Peter Cost. She graduated from Scripps College in May 2009 with a BA in Studio Art and a BA in Dance. She is currently in her first year at the University of California, Irvine, Dance Master of Fine Arts program, where she is studying movement as a language through the double lens of choreography and pedagogy.

I love watching people who are completely engrossed in reading a book, the gentleness of their head inclined forward, the rapt softness of their eyes as they soak in words. Or a person who is listening in earnest to another person, absorbing everything, nodding in comprehension. Or a person whose eyes are wide open, trying to take in all of the details of a view, desiring to experience and understand something larger than him or herself. In all of these moments, the self is sustained, but it is also unfolded to envelop something greater.

What I find most beautiful are not objects, places, people, or the words and artwork that attempt to describe them. Rather I love that human's appreciation, fascination, and attention to things outside of themselves to create these words and artworks. It is attentiveness, and its elusiveness as a choice that must be effortfully made, that I find truly beautiful.

For me, making art is about teaching myself to see and listen to you.

Julia Cost's art is on display online at Cargo Collective and can be purchased through The Curtis Wilson Cost Gallery.

The Maui Weekly did an article on Julia, Blending the boundaries between art and dance in the July 30, 2009 issue.