Julia Cost 鈥�09 was born into a family with generations of artists, yet she was hesitant to turn her creativity into a career.听鈥淲e didn鈥檛 even have a TV growing up. We had a garage and my mom said it was the 鈥榩roject room,鈥� with art supplies floor to ceiling,” Cost recalls with a smile. “My brother and I made art all the time. I don鈥檛 remember a time when I wasn鈥檛 making art. It was so integral to everything we did.鈥�
Cost was raised on Maui, Hawai鈥檌, by her father, who is a painter, and her mother, who ran the family gallery. After attending a college preparatory high school, and as the first in her family to attend college, Cost felt like she was supposed to focus on more 鈥渞igorous鈥� areas of study, such as English or history, instead of following her passions for art and dance. 鈥淭he art and dance studio were my happy places, but it almost felt too fun to do something that made me so happy,鈥� Cost says. But after her first year at college鈥攚hich she spent at Smith College鈥攕he realized that she could pursue what she loved.
She transferred to Scripps as a sophomore and initially declared a major in studio art. That year Cost, who spent her summers training at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, was cast as a performer in multiple senior theses and decided to double major in dance. While at Scripps, she found a passion for choreography, creating work for and with dancers from across the 5Cs. After graduation, she went on to earn a master鈥檚 of fine arts in dance at the University of California, Irvine and later started a small dance collective in the Bay Area before shifting her focus to painting full-time.
Today, Cost finds ways to interweave art and dance into her flourishing and unique career: She sews her own sample garments with self-designed fabrics and dances in them to show her Instagram sewing clients how the fabrics move. Her oil and watercolor original paintings have become the subjects of these textile designs, which she offers on different types of fabric, including cotton poplin, gauze, and corduroy. 听鈥淒ancing in [fabric made from] my paintings is an amazing feeling!鈥� Cost says. 鈥淎n integration of so many parts of my work.鈥�
Sharing her own work has helped Cost uplift others鈥� work as well鈥攁n effect she calls 鈥渢he coolest part of promotion.鈥� In December, she painted a new textile featuring 72 of her clients鈥� garments, all of which were made with her fabrics. She calls the new design Tiny Wardrobe Textile. 鈥淚t is very meta!鈥� Cost says. 鈥淣ow people around the world are making adorable听things with it.鈥� 听But her work goes beyond fabrics: She also听sells original paintings and gicl茅es of her work by commission or through her family鈥檚 art gallery, and she is currently finishing up her first children鈥檚 book, which will include 30 original oil paintings.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very hard to be an expert at any one thing,鈥� Cost explains. 鈥淚 think there鈥檚 value in working to be pretty good at a lot of things. Then you can stack these together and you鈥檒l have a unique skill set that gives you lots of perspectives and ways to approach problems. It can also set you apart.鈥� Pursuing her various passions, she adds, has helped her navigate her career: 鈥淜eep the things you鈥檙e drawn to alive, because they will intersect at some point, and it will all make sense.鈥�