Artist Statement
“I have long been interested in exploring the relationship of perception, emotion and spirit, and how these are filtered through our human connections and experiences to be distilled into creative activity. I believe we all have the creative urge…it is just that some of us persist at the activity long enough to find real joy in it.
Artist/theorist Max Bill believed that “art is the medium that makes thought visible”. As a result of many years persisting…I have learned to not only look outward as I paint, but to also look inward at the mind/heart process…as the joy is expressed in line and color and texture. It is a fascinating journey from the beginning of the first line to the point at which the mind/heart says ‘stop’. And the traveling of the journey is what is important: Art is not a thing, but and ACT. I hope that thruough my work, it will be evident what my life has been, is, and is the prediction of where I am going. Please join me on that journey of joy!
About the Artist
Working mainly in oil and oil pastel on a variety of surfaces, Joan is presently exploring the limits of color and pattern, both in horses and in their surrounding landscape. Joan has had a number of one person shows throughout the northwest including the University of Montana, Collectors Showcase, The Front Street Gallery, all of Missoula, Montana, and the Sandpiper Gallery in Polson, Montana. She has done many commissions and has work in many private collections. Painting the animal world since 1965, she graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in fine arts. Joan teaches drawing and painting in Missoula and the Mission Valley.
Examples of her work can be seen at:
and also at home in St. Ignatius, where you can find Joan working in her studio overlooking the Mission Mountains on the ranch where she and her husband raise and train working Border Collies.
