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Artist statement
April 2011
Everywhere I travel I find myself being imbued with a fascination for the birds of that area. Whether I’m traveling to Mexico, New York City, Canada, Melbourne, Bali, Kakadu, or simply a quick trip down to Yallingup, Western Australia I take with me binoculars, a camera, and a field guide to birds. I find that it is the birds that seem to colour my experience of a region and give me a new sense of place.
These recent paintings are stories about the places I’ve explored. Some of the stories are real experiences, some are scientifically factual, others are anecdotes I learned along the way, and some are whispers given to me in that quiet moment when I found myself alone and all I could hear was a beautiful song.
As the personalities and spirit of the birds emerged from the canvas some words soon followed. The use of words for me was like adding another colour or shape to the canvas. Some of the words came from the reading I do of field guides, the poetry of Rumi and inspiration from poet, Mary Oliver. Words like images lead the eye and guide the soul.
Joie Villeneuve
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One critic described Joie’s work as: “Full of character, captivating, and life-expressive. Joie’s work provides a visual journey across the world on the wings of a bird. These paintings are infinitely more vibrant, though, than simple pictures of flora and fauna. Each piece captures the essence of ultimate freedom -a bird in flight- and the pristine beauty inherent in the petals of nature’s ultimate vision of love: the flower. Free and fragrant these paintings are imbued with all the emotion and awe of nature, as seen through the eyes of an artist that truly appreciates her surroundings.”
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