ink, charcoal, specialty paper, found paper, gesso, glue, fixative, wood, figurative, collage, portraiture, figurative

Joyce Ann Burton-Sousa

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People face challenges, and they struggle. The faces of this struggle have become the focus of my art since the death of my life-long partner. My role is a facilitator, bringing forth each person; a process that claims my attention and demands honesty in its deliverance. I do not know these people. I do not recognize them… but I do recognize something in them. They are the faces of people striving to define themselves and share their stories. When I begin, the final form is unknown, yet each piece of work has a clear point of completion. I know when I have rendered what was needed, and the piece stands on its own. The work of honest portrayal has pushed me to my current mixed media technique. I seek a rich texture worthy of these voices. My focus is the people, their struggles, and the imperfections that inevitably emerge. I cannot not make this art. I assemble pieces, striving towards a meaningful whole: reflecting how the subjects repeatedly cobble together lives from disparate parts. The energy of my process, and the urgency I feel in its creation, animates the art–demanding a similar return from the viewer. Approach: Always an artist in various media, I began painting late in life and have little regard for restrictions on the creative process. Art represents freedom. I am, for the most part, self-taught, and strive to preserve my own artistic vision. I want to show, not just the artwork, but the creative process that occurs. Creating is a very personal endeavor and a space for me to represent my own perspective. By sharing my interior process in an honest way, I hope for an interactive connection with the viewer. When I succeed, I shorten the distance between creator and observer and between the piece and the person experiencing it. Texture is my passion. To keep the rich surface that I create accessible, I incorporate the frame into the artwork. It is a piece that remains exposed—providing the opportunity to witness and revisit the steps in the creative process.