Photograph by Thomas Molash
Julia Carusillo is Chicago-based graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, having earned her MFA in Production Design in the Fall of 2013, after graduating with her BFA in Art Direction from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 2011. She is a lover of Italian film, her many vintage collections, reality television and history. Julia is a set designer and artist, working in a wide range of media including Sketchup, gouache and watercolor, Illustrator and Photoshop, clay, hand-typography, resin, and embroidery, amongst others. She is always looking to collaborate on projects that stretch the definition of what production design is, whether that means a highly-staged film set, a livable interior design project, or exhibition and museum design. She has worked in film, theme parks, theatre, digital content and exhibition design.
Julia has been interviewed for and featured in pieces for various publications about two Instagram accounts she created and runs in her spare time, including interviews with Arch Digest and Nylon for her Polly Pocket collection, which has over 22k followers and can be found at @polly_pick_pocket. Julia’s other popular account, with 23k followers, is @realhousewivessmoking, a critical analysis of reality tv smokers, about which she wrote a piece for Gawker and was interviewed on the podcast “So Good It’s Bad with Ryan Bailey”.
Julia’s gouache and watercolor illustrations have been featured in Der Spiegel, Vice, Vice again, and once more in Vice. She has also painted and designed more than ten album covers.
Julia sells her resin art at BUDDY giftshop at the Chicago Cultural Center as well as other boutiques in Chicago. She can be reached at juliacarusillo@gmail.com.