Joan has a rich sensitivity for preserving the way things were, her photos awaken nostalgia of bygone days with true storytelling images. Her glimpses of past-occupied spaces and abandoned relics of early motorcars move the viewer gently to the solitude of a sand dune.Joan’s photographs also challenge the senses with a full burst of radiant colors in a still scene of rare suggestion. . .a fossilized skull reflecting the brilliance of brightly contrasting furnishings.Known affectionately by her friends as Joanie, the photographer combines a rare artistry in her ability to bring to life a rustic kitchen of the Old West, side-by-side with the real life action of today’s cowboy. In this SPSA showing she includes some of Santa Paula’s local agricultural scenes and records some of the stately rows of trees that are so quickly disappearing.Joan’s talent was first recognized with her Black & White Dunes, and her work evolved to Polaroid manipulation and lifts, electrostatic images and hand-coloring. Today she is best known for her sensitivity to color, reflecting the vibrant colors that surround her.Joan has participated in two SPSA Santa Paula California Oil Museum exhibits and has her line of greeting cards at the museum and the SPSA Depot Gallery. She has also participated in the annual Santa Paula Art and Photography Show and displayed her works at the Santa Clara Valley Hospice Garden Tour & Art Walk and the Ventura Art Walk.For more information about the exhibit or the Santa Paula Society of the Arts, call 525-1104.
Unique exhibit: Photographer Monroe the SPSA featured artist at BCL
May 26, 2004
Santa Paula News
An award-winning photographer is the featured Santa Paula Society of the Arts exhibitor at Blanchard Community Library/Shively Memorial Gallery Wall through July 10.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesAn award-winning photographer is the featured Santa Paula Society of the Arts exhibitor at Blanchard Community Library/Shively Memorial Gallery Wall through July 10.Joan Monroe, born to a Hawaii-based missionary family, is displaying “her incomparable images of the American Southwest, the Eastern Sierras of mining days, California Missions and scenes from the Santa Paula area,” said Virginia Gunderson of the SPSA.Joan has had exhibits at the Del Mar Fair, Off-Track Gallery in Leucadia, and the Escondido Partnership.In the tradition of artist Grandma Moses and photographer Julia Cameron, Joan discovered her calling for photography later in life, in the aftermath of healing from personal losses and an auto accident. Her search for purpose and artistic expression was the natural outcome of life-long adventures and experiences.The foundation was set for her to face her greatest fear, to return to college at Palomar Community College in San Marcos to again pursue the drafting classes needed for her Interior Design degree. The class was closed but she entered beginning photography classes and the artist within started blooming.
