Growth, oil on canvas, 60x48"

Growth is an expression of personal evolution, this painting reflects a period in my life when an old, self-negating paradigm burst into a new more loving and affirming one. In this instance it marks a moment in time when I sacrificed a neurotic need for perfection (to prove that yes, indeed, I am love-able) for an acceptance of loving despite imperfection, both myself and someone in my life. (continue reading below or Contact for Purchase Info)

Jill Joy, Growth, oil on canvas, 48x60"

Early on, I developed a strong need to be perfect as a way of compensating for a difficult childhood — as a means of proving that yes, despite the evidence around me, I was indeed worthy of love. It was effective in someways but ultimately spiritually and creatively debilitating. It was a means of existence based in a lie. During this period in my life I made a major leap forward into a healthier more accepting way of being.

This painting is part of the Consciousness Series but also part of a sub-set of this series I call Evolution.

In my experience, when we grow as people (often by recognizing a truth we have up to that point avoided or been unaware of) there is a burst of energy that occurs inside of us like the creation of a new universe and a new self. We explode outward and inward at the same time and we are no longer the same person. Our consciousness evolves. It’s a subtle process but very real.

Jill Joy with Growth

Painted in oil on primed canvas over 2.5" deep, hand-built stretchers, signed lower right side.

Emanation

I am being filled
from the inside out
by a great void.
A vast emptiness
covered by the thin skin
of identity.
© Jill Joy 2016
Emanation, oil on canvas, 48x60"

Jill Joy, Emanation, oil on canvas, 48x60"

Morningstar619

I was going through some of my poetry today and found the following that I wrote some time ago.

Morningstar619

Life has broken his heart

It has blown it all apart

Between the pieces that remain

He’s looking for something to keep him sane

In the space between the pain

He’ll find the Love that does not change

© Jill Joy August 2012

The Power of Emotions to Transform - Exhibition Postponed due to Illness...Stay tuned while we reschedule

Emotions are a dicey proposition. We need to experience and understand them in order to grow and heal. At the same time if we allow them to overwhelm us, we can get into trouble.  Repression, on the other hand, is just as bad leading to stagnation.

Jill Joy - Dissolution - oil on canvas - 60x72"

In this work, which I create on an as needed basis to cope with strong feelings, I have allowed myself a constructive way to feel and process my emotions: Giving them life and expression, but not allowing them to overwhelm me or anyone else. And in the process a dynamic piece of art is created that, having transformed me, has I believe, the power to transform the viewer.

Jill Joy - Divertere - oil on canvas - 36x36"

I Thought The World of You

In the continuing quest of evolving consciousness through art this is one of my latest creations:

Jill Joy - I Thought The World of You - oil on canvas - 48x60" - 2015

Below is a photo from my art studio on my easle. This work has a lighter palette than I have been working in lately. It's part of the process of working through the end of a relationship that meant a lot to me. I ended it, I have come to understand, because it no longer served my soul and my growth as a person and an artist. I ended it despite a very strong feeling of love for this person. Art is for me a way of processing my life. I express my thought and emotions through my abstract painting as thoughts and emotions are abstract.

That is the beauty of contemporary art in my opinion: It give us a visible, tangible access to those processes within ourselves, our lives and our emotions that we can't see.

Jill Joy, I Thought The World of You, oil on canvas, 48x60x2.5", 2015

So I've been going back and forth, back and forth on it in my mind. Niggling it, worrying it, wondering about it. But when I think about returning to the same situation, I just can't fathom it. Lately I've been realizing it's important that I acknowledge that I can love some one even if it's not sustainable. People are in our lives for a reason if our stated purpose is spiritual growth. None the less, I can still love even if my soul no longer grows from the connection and thus I can't have them close to me. It's sad in someways but freeing as well. The freedom to grow is the most powerful freedom of all.

Letter to Gallery X

Here's a little window into my worldview...daily operation of working towards greater representation....

Dear Curators,

Enclosed please find a CD containing images of recent paintings from my Consciousness Series. I am seeking representation at your gallery and appreciate your taking the time to view my work.

Jill Joy, Wave, oil on canvas, 57x69x2.5”, 2014

This series of paintings, Consciousness, represents the culmination of 20+ years of spiritual and artistic exploration. Deceptively simple and subtly complex, like consciousness itself, they represent awareness of thought, emotion and human experience in a greater field of love. This work ties individual, inner experience to the external, physical world and as such communicate a mystical reality. Executed in a meditative trance, they become meditative objects, contemporary mandalas. In addition to the paintings there are a series of poems that accompany the work. If you are interested please let me know and I will provide them. I have included one example in this package.

A wave.
has crashed through my life
Separated me
from what has tormented me
and sustained me

I sit here in the silence
in the receding tide
Wondering.
what will become of me

© Jill Joy 2014

I’m happy to answer any questions or provide you with any additional images or information. I would be extremely pleased and honored to be represented by your gallery. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Jill Joy

Jill's Artist Statement

 

My art is an expression of the unseen worlds of spiritual and emotional energy and their interplay as the individual soul evolves towards a higher state of consciousness.

Jill Joy - Aftermath - oil on canvas - 48x60" available through Wall Street Fine Art Gallery, Ponte Vedra, Florida http://wallstreetfineart.gallery/

As a very young child, I was keenly aware of the paradox of death. By my early twenties, enlightenment was a stated goal of mine. All of my work is a record of the evolution of consciousness. The laboratory available to me in this study is that of my own mind, body and emotions.

My personal growth and spiritual evolution inspire my work as does my proximity to the ocean and especially the horizon.

Lately I’ve been finding more and more connection between the inner and outer world as I dissolve the boundaries of my ego. I am at heart a mystic; my work is spiritual and emotional experience made material.

Each body of work on this website is an investigation into this transformation:from my earliest work, The Soul of Memory, through my most recent, Illumination. A series specific statement is included on the webpage for each series and gives more detail about the specific exploration undertaken by each group of paintings.

Elevator Speech on Enlightenment #art #painting

I was at a party over the holidays and found myself queried about my art. It's often very difficult for an abstract artist to describe his or her art because the concepts are often abstract ideas that the artist is attempting to represent visually. When I got home I decided I needed to summarize exactly what it is my work is about. Not just for my fellow humans, but for also me. So here’s what I came up with that seemed to encompass 20+ years of painting and the evolution across a multitude of styles:

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Jill Joy – Purple Sky – oil on canvas – 36×36

“My work is essentially about enlightenment: Transcending individual thoughts, emotions and experiences towards identification with something beyond the self that is universal and all encompassing. My art seeks to understand our place in the universe, the transience of life and the existence of a broader vibrational field of love that encompasses us all.”

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Jill Joy - Thought Forms compassion - oil on canvas - 20x60 - 2014