We recently connected with joy tirade and have shared our conversation below.
joy, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I realized I was an artist inside a James Turrell installation. Surrounded by his installation’s gorgeous, saturated light, I knew this was what I had to do with the rest of my life.
My first significant introduction to Fine Art was in Houston. It was 2001, and I visited a friend’s family for the holidays. I visited the Museum of Fine Arts and encountered the James Turrell piece, The Light Inside. I stood inside the installation for ages, watching the light ebb from magenta to violet to blue.
This light seemed to match my heartbeat and my breath. I became obsessed with art after that moment. It was like falling in love for the first time. I taught myself to paint that year.
I had friends in art school then, so I spent as much time with them discussing art techniques and theories. We had art nights at my big house in Boulder. I was a radio DJ at the time, and we all made artwork of some kind.
I wouldn’t enter art school for a few more years.
First, I went to San Francisco, where I met an incredible group of artists and an artist collective. Meeting these artists made a deep impression on me. Eventually, I left San Francisco to attend school in Virginia and completed a degree in Art and Art History from the University of Virginia. A few years later, I was awarded my MFA from UNC-Chapel Hill.
I am now a practicing visual artist and art educator.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I was raised in the American South by my gentle, working-class grandparents. We were all transplants from the north. My grandmother cooked, and my grandfather built things out of wood and repaired engines in propane trucks as a mechanic. They taught me to work hard and to make beautiful things by hand.
I have become a lens-based artist, but my earlier identity as a painter shines through in my art. I have worked with watercolor, ink, light, salt, indigo, and heat. In the past, I have worked with oil paint, sequin fabric, bleach, and velvet. As I pursue the truth of these materials, my work explores human perception and longing. I connect with the material’s inherent qualities and properties as I work. I listen for the work that needs making. I record it with experimental video or in alternative process photography.
My work is my way of exploring my experience of human perception. To understand what it means to be human in our dynamic and changing environment. My work addresses personal and collective memory and questions about time and being.
My research investigates embodiment, displacement, language, and longing. I often use the body or the absence of the body to articulate a yearning for a better future. A future yet to be imagined or expressed. I contemplate art history, pop culture, speculative fiction, and emerging technologies. My immersive videos and paintings provide pathways for connection in our disconnected time through phenomenological inquiry.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I have three superpowers: time management, patience, and grit.
I use the bullet journal method to plan my goals and dreams in a blank Leuchtturm 1917 journal. I like blank pages because I can write, paint, sketch, and plan. Writing down my goals helps me focus on the minor details of my plans, artwork, and exhibitions. This is helpful for my second skill, patience.
Everything worth doing well takes time. Lots and lots of time. Usually, it takes more time than you think it will take. I have developed a deep well of patience to chip away at my goals slowly. This serves me in my art practice and my life as an educator.
Grit is a personality trait characterized by perseverance and passion for achieving long-term goals. I believe in myself and my ability to get to where I am going with the help of my community. Of course, I have days when I doubt or feel frustrated or sad, but I can usually bounce back by returning to my bullet journal to receive the inspiration I need to rest, buckle down, and then continue my journey.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
In my early 20s, I read The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. Following her guidelines I began a morning writing practice she calls “morning pages.” I have used this method for over twenty years to reflect on myself and my practice. It is a life-changing book that I recommend to anyone who feels lost.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.joytirade.com
- Instagram: @joy.tirade (photo + video feed)
@joytirade (studio page feed)
Image Credits
This work was shown as part of an online exhibition through Contemporary Identities. All images are my own work. See link here: https://contemporaryidentities.com/ws/media-library/b38b116efae04b88a2e5c27ea402a996/joy-tirade_catalogue_final.pdf.
