I was born in Fresno, California, in 1957. I attended California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California where I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in art. My primary field of study was design and painting.
Upon graduating college, I began my career in graphic design. Starting at an in-house grocery store advertising department in the San Francisco Bay area, I developed my graphic design skills and later moved to Bakersfield, California to work at The Bakersfield Californian as an ad designer. I left the newspaper in 1995 and I am presently doing freelance graphic design as the owner of Aqua Graphics.
Missing the feel of paint on canvas, I began painting with a fervor. And in 2013, I opened Live Water Studios. My studio work is mostly abstract and my medium of choice is acrylics.
I love the freedom of expression I feel when I'm painting. To be in the moment, letting go of boundaries, rules and limitations, is heavenly. I am liberated. It's this feeling of freedom and liberation that I find most appealing about abstract painting where there are no mistakes and no judgements, just the beauty within revealed.
Julie Acquaviva Hayes joined Pixels.com Licensing on February 22nd, 2014.
