Joelle Provost – Anniversary Art Exhibition – Artist Portfolio Magazine

5 Year Anniversary Art Exhibition – Artist Portfolio Magazine

Joelle Provost – Richmond, CA

With unbridled enthusiasm and a great sense of urgency, in my studio I am both a conductor and a bystander, both orchestrating the event and sitting on the sidelines, but engaged, nonetheless. I take in life and spit it out in the way I see it; in Technicolor; amplified and on full blast. Cataclysmic events, mutant animals with balloon heads, birds composed of swept up floor dirt and diaristic notes; the subjects within my paintings are inflicted by the everything-is-connected syndrome in the age of climate change. “Self” in these works is inevitably intertwined with the universal with compassion in mind. In the work, I investigate Self and the baggage it carries as it parallels humanity’s baggage that we have collectively left on this planet; both in our literal trash and in the psychology behind the messes we have created, and in the guilt attached to these messes. I highlight the indispensible, precious qualities of both the Earth and the Self. In the process of creating, I find joy and humility in an unsettled time of debauchery, hedonism, and finitude.