Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Joseph.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jennifer. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Back up about four years. I was an Alabama transplant, new to Augusta, Georgia. We were living in an old house in need of lots of work. I was homeschooling my three oldest and we had a newly adopted 15 months old as well as his “twin,” our nine-month-old. Life felt chaotic and nothing was ever finished. My hours and minutes were not my own and creativity had taken a back seat. In fact, I wasn’t doing anything creative. I felt like something inside of me was dying.
One night I collapsed in bed, utterly exhausted, dreading the knowledge that a child would probably wake and begin crying in a few hours. As I lay there, the tears came. I was overwhelmed and depleted. As I wept, my husband asked what was wrong. I told him the most creative thing I had done all day was arranging a Mexican themed dinner in an aluminum pan for a friend, complete with little flags on toothpicks. As I said those words, my voice cracked and my cries reached an awful high pitched wail. You know, when you’re trying so hard not to cry and it just comes out. It was terrible. He told me something needed to change. He encouraged me to make time to be creative. To paint.
One Sunday afternoon not long after that, we put the little ones down for naps and I locked myself in our bathroom with a bag of Hershey’s peppermint kisses and a giant canvas. I dragged out all my paints and leaned the canvas against our closet doors and began painting. It was cathartic. I was in there for hours. It was like all my pent up creativity and emotions spilled onto that surface and there was such relief as I swept the brushes and palette knives across the canvas. By the time I’d completed the painting, I felt alive again. Like clouds had lifted, the haze was gone, and I could see in color.
I hung that painting in my living room. It generated a lot of comments… one thing led to another and I ended up with several commissions. Last January I got to exhibit my work along with three other incredibly talented artists at Sacred Heart Cultural Center in Augusta. That was a “pinch me” moment and providentially, the work has rolled in steadily and I haven’t looked back.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has certainly not been a smooth road, but it’s been a beautiful road. Lots of twists and turns, highs and lows, and views I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. I’ve had paintings fall flat on their faces-rejected by those who commissioned them. I’ve had other paintings that have been unexpected successes.
My biggest struggle has been figuring out how to give feet to my creative energy amidst the ebb and flow of life. How do I paint and design and still love my people well? I am very cognizant of how quickly my children are growing…of how fast these days are passing…and that I don’t get them back. But I’ve also got this creativity inside of me and it longs for ways to ooze out. When I bundle it up and try to suppress it, I’m miserable. Painting has given life to some of those creative groanings.
I’ve also struggled with fear. When I paint, a piece of my heart goes into my work. My paintings are personal and a reflection of me. Putting a painting “out there,” whether that’s in a show or for a specific client, etc. is a little nerve-wracking. It’s caused me to wrestle with where my confidence and identity are found. That’s been a sweet road, too. I’ve had to go toe to toe with my heart and mind and question my beliefs.
Jennifer Joseph Fine Art – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My business is small and young. I resurrected my brushes about four years ago. I don’t have a website. I don’t do Facebook. Until recently, I didn’t even have an Instagram account exclusively for my art. Word got out among friends that I was painting again and spread from there. It’s been a wonderful start and a perfect pace in light of where I am in life.
I’m best known for impressionistic and abstract paintings. I’ve painted lots of impressionistic landscapes, but most recently I’ve taken my love for creating patterns and have layered those patterns atop my abstracts. It creates such a unique work of art. The closer you get to a painting, you realize there’s something else there. You look a little closer and begin discovering these intricate and fun patterns woven throughout. It feels like there’s always more to see.
Perhaps the thing that sets me apart is the lack of delineation between my art and my life. They’ve really merged into one. I’ve got an amazing husband and these five precious children and I’m homeschooling the older three. Between subjects, sometimes during lunch, and often as we listen to books on cd, I’m pulling out a canvas and painting. Some days I greet the sun, brush in hand, and other days I find myself up late into the night, sketching and painting. I don my paint apron and move between another layer on the canvas and a boiling pot in the kitchen.
Art and life are intertwined. I didn’t think I could do that. I had this idea they had to be separate, that I couldn’t create on a canvas until my people were more independent and I had more time. I had this notion I needed my ducks to be in a row before I could even attempt any semblance of a career as an artist. I’ve learned, as cliche as it sounds, life really is art. It’s messy and broken and it’s beautiful.
Something about that Sunday afternoon in the bathroom with the peppermint kisses taught me my ducks won’t ever be in a row. And that’s ok. I can still create in the crazy. Even if the creating takes place on the bathroom floor. And for whatever reason, layering painting with homeschooling and cooking and laundry and all the glorious rhythms of life has made me feel so alive.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
There are two “proud moments” that stand out to me.
The evening of my art show at Sacred Heart, a friend snapped a picture of me with my husband and children. In that moment, something profound hit me. Here was my family, who willingly committed to eat pizza and cereal for dinner to afford me time to paint. These were my people, who sacrificed so I could exhibit. They were standing there with me, smiling and cheering me on. They were really proud of me. That was a proud moment. A sweetly humbling moment, too, of realizing how deeply loved and supported I am by the people who mean the most to me.
And second, I would have to say, was scrolling through Instagram and discovering Yancey Shearouse, a designer whom I have tremendous admiration and respect for, had purchased one of my paintings and hung it in her home. I was on cloud nine.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 334-796-6484
- Email: jenniferbjoseph@me.com
- Instagram: jenniferjosephfineart
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