Turning her back on a glamorous and lucrative academic career in favor of a life of rock-climbing, telemark skiing and fly fishing, Julie Sprinkle has, instead, concentrated on finding the beauty in small and overlooked corners of the expansive, Western landscape. Taking advantage of her considerable nearsightedness, she has sought the infinite in the infinitesimal, leading to a life-long devotion to calligraphy, tatting and other fine fiber arts (including lace knitting and fly tying) as well as to certification in Botanical Art and Illustration from the Denver Botanic Gardens. In addition to focusing closely on plants and plant parts (whether native species or noxious weeds), she is working on uniting several interests in a series of drawings of fishing flies in their natural habitat: tangled in the branches of streamside vegetation. Julie is a member of the Rocky Mountain Society of Botanical Artists, with whom she has regularly participated in shows since 2004; of the American Society of Botanical Artists; of the Front Range Fiber Artisans Guild; and of the Pikes Peak Women Anglers. Her work is featured in collections in California, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Illinois, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and Japan.

Julie was born in El Paso and raised all over Texas. Having studied and worked extensively in Europe, she has (at one time or another) spoken Spanish, German and French fluently and still reads Latin pretty well, which comes in handy with those pesky botanical names. Although her undergraduate degrees are in languages and politics and her Ph.D. is in Medieval German Literature, she has always crammed art classes in around the edges of her studies and has never been without some way to create. She has made her home in Colorado Springs for well over a decade with her husband, Jeff Cooper, and their very fetching Springer Spaniel, Winston.