Meet Julie Notaro: Finding Wonder in Nature, Memory, and Color

While Julie’s work explores ideas of memory, impermanence, and the sublime, there is also an unmistakable sense of joy running through it. Pops of unexpected color move through layered surfaces and expansive fields, bringing an energy to the work that feels distinctly her own.

That energy also reflects something of Julie herself. Warm, expressive, and naturally upbeat, she brings a sense of curiosity and enthusiasm to both her work and the way she experiences the world around her. The color in her paintings does not feel decorative or added simply for effect; it feels connected to the excitement with which she approaches exploration and making.

Even when her paintings reference the vastness and mystery of nature, they rarely feel heavy. There is movement, playfulness, and optimism within them—qualities that make the work feel as personal as the memories and landscapes that inspire it.

Falling in Love With the Las Vegas Desert

When Julie Notaro moved to Las Vegas, she quickly fell in love with the desert surrounding her new home. She was drawn to a landscape she found genuinely stunning: expansive, dramatic, and filled with a kind of beauty that would eventually make its way into her work.

That connection inspired Expanse Rising, an abstract painting created as a celebration of the Las Vegas desert. Rather than reproducing the landscape literally, Julie translates her experience of it through abstraction, using color, movement, marks, texture, and layered fields to evoke the feeling of encountering the desert.

Expanse Rising also provides a more specific window into Julie’s broader fascination with the sublime. Nature interests her not only for what it looks like, but for what it can make us feel—the awe of standing before something vast, the wonder of discovering unexpected beauty, and the memories that remain after the experience itself has passed.

For Julie, the Las Vegas desert became one of those experiences. Expanse Rising is her response to it and, ultimately, a celebration of a landscape she came to love after making Las Vegas home.