Joy Hanser Art

Artist Statement

As a fellow traveller through life and an artist, I let the subjects that inspire me dictate how to paint them. Sometimes it's a photo I snapped that reveals more than I hoped for; sometimes (rarely) I'm fully equipped to sit somewhere and jot down what I'm seeing. It is a multi-sensory experience, like the time I got caught under one of Florence's bridges in a full-on rainstorm, complete with lightning and thunder. There are many dimensions - the physical setting, what I know and don't know about where I am looking, and of course color, shape and composition. I have been on many journeys, both abroad and at home, and yet I feel I'm only just starting out.

Bio in Brief

I was born in Amsterdam to a family of artists and other colourful characters, and spent my youth drawing, painting and philosophizing. We immigrated to Canada, first to Vancouver and then Vancouver Island, where I looked for trolls in the rainforest, meanwhile learning to express what I felt. Some of my first paintings went to friends of my parents, encouraging me to keep experimenting. Primarily self-taught, I admired Gauguin, Rembrandt, the Symbolists, and the power of music and writing to generate images.

Today I live close to where we first landed in Vancouver, and enjoy a rich artist's life surrounded by natural beauty, rampant construction, and other anomalies and delights.