The Dutch saying, "a Jan Steen household," originated in the seventeenth century, and has come to refer to a home in disarray, full of rowdy children and boisterous family gatherings. The paintings of Steen, along with those of other Dutch and Flemish genre painters, are the direct inspiration behind the layered, domestic scenes of Julie Blackmon's photographic work. Raised as the oldest of nine children, and the mother of three herself, Blackmon takes an approach to her work that is at once autobiographical and fictional. According to Anne Wilkes Tucker of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Blackmon has "taken a subject that is ripe for cliche--mother photographing children--and through the subtle, digital manipulations, the use of color and highly graphic images, she's given it humor and edge and taken the subject somewhere fresh."

Julie Blackmon的作品會從很多比較有名的油畫當中吸取元素，在她自己的傢裏各個地方都擺瞭攝影燈，這樣可以幫助她在日常生活當中拍攝到傢庭生活中比較有趣的畫麵。

平凡的生活情節在Julie Blackmon的影像中閤理擺布，畫麵總能分割有秩。點與點對峙，綫與綫相交，麵與麵映襯的畫麵構成是我們視覺獲取的第一趣味語言。

在Julie Blackmon的畫麵中。

類似發呆、哭泣、凝望等這些動作和錶情已經變成一種很獨立的畫麵元素，

甚至已經沒有瞭這些錶情動作本來帶有的感情色彩和情緒。

純粹的為瞭一個目的——讓畫麵更漂亮，更讓人想去瞭解他想敘述的故事，

而這些故事從他那裏說齣來卻有含糊不清。

她所用的燈光看齣來他幾乎是放棄瞭太陽照耀下的這個世界，一心想要生活在自己獨立的空間。