Aimee Joyaux
Aimee Joyaux is an abundantly creative and endlessly curious artist who has her artist’s mind in many places. She is a painter, a photographer, and a performance artist. She is a printmaker and a teacher. Drawing plays a central role in her artistic practice. The renovated antebellum cotton warehouse in Petersburg, Virginia, that she and her husband Alain call home contains artistic multitudes, including a painting studio, a darkroom, a print and letterpress shop and Alain’s woodworking studio. In her work, Aimee uses color, language, iconography, and found materials to respond in a visceral way to current events and to examine their connections to the histories and mythologies that make up our cultural identities.
“Color is a very important element artistically, so I want to work with that visually. There’s a lot of impact in color, there’s a lot of symbolism in color. In the meantime, things like Target came along and they changed the way that world looked . . . There is a pretty, shiny, happy look to consumerism and it is designed to draw you in. . . . I am still interested in beauty, and beauty is a complicated idea, so how do I use the formal elements of art - you know, that’s my grammar and my vocabulary - to draw the viewer in and then maybe slap you upside the head? Because it’s easy to just get numbed into pretty, too. I want to find that space between beauty and truth. ”
Paige hosts the LookSEE podcast and is a freelance audio producer, an art lover, and a lifelong Richmonder. Her favorite place to be is in a museum. A close second is a bookstore.
