As the self-described "alien" of her family, Julie Seddon Faris knew she was a little different. "Growing up I always felt like a freak," she says with a child-like laugh. "In the context of my family, I still am...I'm always striving for some sort of acceptance."

    In person, though, Faris (BFA'91) is about as 'normal' as you can get, bubbly even. But look at her painting of bars populated with lost souls and you see another side. Her work is a world of outsiders, the disenfranchised and the fallen.

    Her pictures give you a sense of foreboding so intense it's palpable with a curious mix of bar scenes and religious imagery. It's Faris' take on "the 30-ish, city-dwelling, nightclub-going crowd," she says. (As lead singer for the band Parade, Faris knows the world she paints. She used it as inspiration for her latest show.)

   In one of her works, the sombre, down-turned eyes and slumped shoulders of Faris' figures sport angel wings. But her "angels" aren't looking for enlightenment. "The drunk angels are about ME looking at someone who may be a drug addict but who can teach me something...I don't have anyone I can rely on other than the people around me to be my angels and tell me the parables I need to know to get through life."

   Faris' art also caught the eye of CityTV's "Ooh la la" producers, who did a feature piece on her work in December. Ironically, the CityTV crew were caught completely off-guard by who they met. "They were really surprised I was such a happy person. I am happy and well-adjusted for someone who's always looking at the dark side."

    So why is the dark so appealing to her?