By Caitlyn Bryant
Juliana Lupacchino has slowly made her mark on the Savannah art scene. Her newest works are in SCAD’s freshly renovated Ruskin Hall on Drayton Street.
Lupacchino, raised in downtown Savannah, is a two-year post-grad with a degree in Fibers from SCAD and has worked on her brand JULU during that time.
“I took a graphic design course when I was at SCAD senior year because I had a free elective,” she said. “We had an assignment where we had to design a business card and mine said J U for my first name and L U for my last name, but my professor read it as JULU. Ever since then it’s kind of stuck.”
Lupacchino started to doodle and draw in her spare time when she had a full-time job. JULU became her creative outlet. She used paint samples from Home Depot to play with. Instead of using paint brushes, she used her hands to finger paint her whimsical designs. She posted her works on social media and people took notice.
“I use JULU as a way to translate my personality into my artwork,” she said. “JULU is a very fun word to say and I think my work reflects that through color and shape.”
Lupacchino’s simple designs have been popping up all over Savannah’s walls—literally.
Community Bible Church reached out to commission a mural in exchange for a mission trip to Costa Rica. Lupacchino decided not to go on the trip, but still completed two murals for free. That’s when SCAD took notice.
Lupacchino sold seven works to SCAD and was asked to paint a mural in Ruskin Hall. “SCAD asked on a Friday if I could do a mural by Sunday and I said sure! It was all so quick and crazy but that’s how I work and how SCAD works so it aligned really well,” she said.
Lupacchino completed five murals in the last year and sold countless works to people in Savannah. Over the last two years Lupacchino has taken what she was taught at SCAD and applied it to her own brand and JULU is continuing to paint the landscape of Savannah.
