Biography

My name is Julia Hayden. I'm an artist and an antiques/collectibles dealer based at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I grew up here. After graduate school, I moved north to pursue a career as a user interface designer (and later as a manager) in the high tech arena around Washington DC. You might also know me as an early pioneer of web content - at a local (Charlottesville Online), international (The Ancient World Web), or an industry level (I was an early contributor to A List Apart).

I was an early adopter to the 'net. I got my first email address in 1986 when I was a freshman in high school. It was a bitnet address and I was styling. I soon got an internet email address and work building gopher systems, hypercard information systems, and other net-geeky things. I first explored the web in 1993, and built my first web page very shortly thereafter. At the same time, I was loading up on art classes in high school and college and experimenting with digital art. It's not surprising that I became a user interface designer (which is someone who designs how the user interacts with a piece of software or web-based entity - from how it looks to how you use it to how it is organized).

After 14 years of dealing with software development processes, pioneering good user interface design for several of my employers, and working incessantly, I decided it was time for a change. I was - despite the best efforts of my mentors and managers - pretty much burned out. So I dramatically changed course.

I've always been a collector. My mom calls it the pack rat gene, but I prefer to think of it as an appreciation of the breadth and width of human artistry. I like learning about the souvenirs of the past - what they represent to individuals, to industries, to cultures, to communities, and to history. I majored in ancient studies as an undergraduate, and my focus was on provincial Roman towns. It was in the urban pop culture that you could see where Roman influence collided with local traditions. I'm interested in the artifacts of life.

Being a dealer lets me explore all sorts of aspects of history and daily life that I might not otherwise encounter in my daily life. For example: It's fascinating to me how and why World's Fairs grabbed the attention of the people around the world right through the 1960s - but once they changed the focus, Worlds Fairs and Expos have a much smaller cultural impact. World's Fair Collectors are an interesting group of people: some are reliving a much treasured visit in their youth; others are enthusiasts for things first introduced to the world at a World's Fair (including the Ferris Wheel, the Viewmaster, Dr. Pepper, and televisions).

As a collector myself , I know how awesome it is to stumble across a treasure, and I really like providing that moment to other people. I tend to buy and sell things I think are cool, interesting, or beautiful, so it's not surprising that I feel a kinship for my customers - or future customers.

I've always been an artist, too, but while I was working in the high tech industry, most - and frequently, all - of my creative energy was focused on the software, websites, and web applications we were creating. There was a period when I didn't pick up a paintbrush or glass cutter or paper for more than a year because my life was dominated entirely by the minutiae of my job. It took me a while to recondition my art muscles, to get my brain focused in the right way, and my hands familiar again.