Julie Guay

Julie Guay is the artist behind Mad Lips 21, an accomplished digital artist from Montreal. Raised in a modest family, Julie showed an early interest in diverse artistic pursuits, including painting, sewing, music and writing. Her creativity led her to earn a degree in interior and visual design at age 23, followed by a diploma in art at age 28.

Initially drawn to conventional art forms such as still life and farm animal paintings, Julie's artistic journey took a digital turn when she encountered the first versions of Photoshop as a young girl over 30 years ago. Since then, she has honed her skills and expertise in graphic design and branding. Today, Julie is a digital artist known for her outstanding work at Mad Lips 21.

The artist's achievements revolved around a more office-based career before deciding to embark on creating digital work full-time for the first time in December 2021. Before that, her passions had been set aside to devote herself to the needs of her family. As the craze for digital air has grown in recent years, Julie is making radical career changes to do what she's most passionate about in life.

Her artistic style falls into the category of contemporary art, specifically Neo-Pop. Her creation fuses surrealism with a partially psychedelic touch, finding inspiration in nature, fashion, climate issues and personal experiences.

The techniques used are mainly computer-assisted drawing. The image created is most often imagined by the artist, who then lets her hand create what the work should be thanks to drawing software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketchbook and Procreate and many others. She sometimes likes to create works with darker colors and add touches of light on metallic reflections. She is able to draw as three-dimensional on two-dimensional.

For Mad Lips 21, climate issues are important. The theme of our first collection is about lips. Hence the name Mad Lips 21. Lips remind us of the silence of mute people and unspoken suffering, but also of taking back power and breaking silence to defend ourselves and the rights of defenseless creatures. It's a direct link with the message we want to convey and the community we want to build to help creatures and animals who have no voice and can't claim their rights.

For every piece of art purchased in the Mad Lips 21 boutique, donations are made to the non-profit organization One Tree Planted, so a tree is planted somewhere in the world. A first exhibition of the artist's work is available free online. Mad Lips 21's 2022 exhibition exists to mark his return to his passion and the start of a vibrant career in the digital world.

A second free online exhibition is

Mad Lips 21 - Expo 2023

As a teenager, Julie gave oral presentations on climate issues to raise awareness among her classmates. Climate issues were not a popular topic at the time.

Today, the artist's aim is to raise awareness and influence people to change their consumption habits to help the planet and future generations through her art. Each mouth conveys an important message, but in short a message of appreciation for the beauty of life and how important it is to be grateful, whatever our social status. And to recognize the needs of nature and animals who suffer from our ignorance or neglect.