Joan’s work is best described by art critic David Betz, as “sensual organic abstract painting”. Born in Arlington, Virginia, her formative years were spent playing in the wooded areas and creeks beds that surround the Potomac River. Joan’s iconography is based on objects she finds in nature that she calls "earth objects". Earth objects are small pods, acorns, and various parts of trees and plants that she finds while walking on the C & O canal. Her work has undergone a steady stylistic evolution in recent years and she has developed a painting process that she calls image archaeology™.
im-age ar´chae-ol´o-gy™, [im-ij] [ahr-kee-ol-uh-jee], n. 1. The systematic recovery by artistic methods of imagery within the ground of a painting. 2. A digging into the surface ground. 3. The space between the figure and the ground. 4. The constant search for the middle ground. 5. Projected thought that culminates into a work of art.
Joan spent 18 years teaching art and design in higher education. She holds a Doctor of Arts from George Mason University. As a graduate student in painting at University of Maryland, Joan had the privilege of working with Anne Truitt who greatly influenced her ideas on color and the studio working process
