Joyanna Rose Gittings
My why…
There are two kinds of thoughts that fill my head most of the time: ideas about things I can create or improve, and ideas about spreading real connection through creativity around in my community. Strong emotions drive my ideas: utter delight, deep grief, empathy, silliness… and I want to document that in some way. Additionally, I really like solving problems. The ideas come furiously and constantly and there is no possible way I will ever be able to execute all of them, but I do execute some of them. They are paintings and kids’ projects and ceramic things and trash sculptures and poems and new events and classes. They are usually painted or involve painting. I really just hope that some of the humor or delight or grief I feel can be shared with others, so that maybe we all feel less alone and more understood and maybe a little better.
Artist Statement- The Very Official One
I tell stories through my work based on strong emotions; I am in awe of love and tenderness, grieve for loved ones and losses, rage at greed and intolerance, and delight in wonder and silliness. I believe in vibrant color. I like to incorporate abstract contours of the figure because what is more familiar to us than our own bodies? I flank unreal soul- figures with landscapes referenced from reality, and incorporate multi-cultural myth and allegory.
Influences include Georgia O’Keefe’s palette and bravado, Leonora Carrington and Frida Kahlo and the Mexican Surrealist movement, Pedro Linares’s delight, and Franz Marc’s strange colors.
Watercolor is my preferred painting medium although I use all wet painting media. I love it for its raw simplicity and unpredictability, much like human nature (and I do so adore humans)... It requires tending, not control, and reminds me to be tolerant and patient. Paper and ceramic sculpture, textile and costumes, and miniature and large mural work are also produced.
I am a bilingual community- based artist: I seek out opportunities to infuse more creativity into daily life in my community (teaching classes in English and Spanish, working on planning comittees and bringing arts activities to events, often in costume) and bridge linguistic and cultural barriers in traditionally white arts spaces (translating calls for art, curating and bringing students to galleries and shows). Founded in 2018, Obra Arts, my studio and gallery space, is open to the public for experiencing a vibrant working art space, learning, and collaboration.
Artist’s Bio…
Joyanna Rose Gittings was born in 1975 in Zanesville, Ohio and is the eldest of 5 children in a tight-knit extended family, living for the majority of her childhood in Bloomville, Ohio. She began to study art in secondary school, focusing on clay and scenic painting. A love of Spanish language and culture drove her to pursue study abroad, and she was placed with a family on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands of Spain. Her host family and her home on the island wrapped themselves around her heart, and the experience of living as a foreigner in another country enabled her to feel solidarity with others experiencing the same. She then attended university, graduating with a BFA in Technical Theatre with a focus on Scenic and Costume design from the University of Cincinnati College- Conservatory of Music in 1998.
She took a leave from artistic practice to focus on raising her four children, moving from Ohio to Colorado in 2010, until 2015 when she began to focus again on art. Beginning in watercolor, she expanded into murals, public art, and multimedia installation. Presently, she is a community- based bilingual artist who makes contemplative work about personal narratives, combining watercolor in new ways with various other 2D and 3D media and language.
Her subject matter portrays tenderness, care, and delight that can be overlooked in modern tech-focused times, encouraging us to slow down. She draws upon the works of Georgia O'Keefe, Leonora Carrington and the Mexican Surrealist movement, Franz Kafka, Maxfield Parrish, Pedro Linares, and Tracey Emin as influences.
She founded Obra Arts Studio and Gallery in 2018 in the heart of the downtown Creative District in Longmont, Colorado. Obra Arts is a flexible, bilingual space encompassing studio, gallery, classroom, and gathering place for the incubation of ideas and fellowship. She paints and aims to foster involvement in the Arts across cultural and language barriers encountered by the diverse members of her community.
She is a former Board President for East Boulder County Artists, a juried professional artist’s organization.
Currently she serves her community as committee member for the Longmont Creative District and Dia de los Muertos Festival, bilingual art and Artesanía instructor for the Firehouse Art Center (2025 Colorado Creative Industries Folk and Traditional Arts Grant Recipient), and Wonder Bringer At Large. She lives in Berthoud, Colorado with her family and Labrador Retriever.
Her work is held in private collections nationally, and she has completed numerous public and private commissioned mural projects.
Recent Projects:
Out of the Box Uhaul Gallery and Punk Show- Sueños Detenidos (Arrested Dreams) Cartonería Sculpture Installation- FAC- January 2026
Día de los Muertos Community Altar for David Bailey and All Our Relatives- with Bradley Books and Betsy Anderson- FAC- October 2025
Artesanía Residency with Saint Vrain Valley School District- Skyline High School Art Capstone Project, Fall 2025
Longmont Summer Concert Series, Exhibiting Artist, 2025
East Boulder County Artists Studio Tour, 2018 - 2025, President 22- 25
Inception, Firehouse Art Center (FAC) Educator Showcase, January 2025
Alebrijes Mágicos, FAC, Paper Sculptures, October 2024
Parallel Play, Poet/ Artist Collaboration Exhibit, FAC, April 2024
The Journey, Installation, FAC, October 2023
Summer On the Streets, Arts Festival, Founding Organizer and Exhibitor, 2020 through 2023
Displaced, Solo Exhibit, FAC, April 2023
Word Play, Poet/ Artist Collab. Exhibit, FAC, April 2023
El Bosque, Quarantine Installation, FAC, August 2020
Various Privately and Publicly commissioned mural projects, Northern Colorado, 2018 - 2025