Where I'm Finding Everyday Beauty

I’m trying to balance my own emotions with the broader state of the world. Everything feels uncertain and hard and I'm trying to sit with that while trying (and sometimes failing) to set boundaries for how and when I absorb the news, social media, information online in general. I am finding it harder to sift through the noise, harder to find information that is helpful, harder to be helpful — so I am spending more time offline, in local community or as part of smaller, more intentional online groups. I’m trying to create more than I consume, trying to look for the beauty in the midst of the ugly.

Here’s where I’ve been finding beauty, lately…

• Ordinary, everyday moments in nature. I’m reminding myself that miracles exists: tiny microscopic flowers; billions of stars; birds that perfectly match their surroundings; cotton candy skies over the ocean; rain glistening on blades of grass, that no two snowflakes are the same; that nothing happening on this planet will keep the moon from rising.

• I’ve been inspired by the work I see other artists doing:
  • Last year, I participated in an art and emergence cooperative with artist and educator Heather Bird Harris. She recently held a prose and possibility event as a closing for her exhibit “love as large as grief demands”, at Spaulding Nix Fine Art, where she transformed mapped industrial scars in Georgia and Louisiana into regenerative landscapes made with site-specific materials. If you’re a working artist seeking to deepen your practice, grow collectively, and broaden your radical imagination of the future, applications are open for her next cohort (due April 15). The experience was transformational for my personal growth and that of my art practice, and I'd love to chat about it if you have questions.

• Kariann Fuqua, also a member of the cooperative, recently closed her solo exhibition at Stand4Gallery in New York: Emergent Strategies: In Defense of Weeds. The exhibit explored the juxtaposition between the idealized capitalist American lawn and the overgrown diversified pollinator yard, with artwork she created through a year of observing “weeds” growing in her yard in Mississippi.

• I’ve joined an All You Can Save circle, where I’m meeting with other New Englanders who are interested in climate solutions. Over the course of 20 weeks, we are reading and discussing All You Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis*. The anthology is full of essays from 60 women in climate, edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, who later founded the All We Can Save Project, which provides programs and resources to support courageous climate engagement.

• Cape Cod Art Center, where I am an artist member, is currently hosting a Warming Seas exhibit in collaboration with Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institute, on view through April 11. I created the below piece, Life As We Know It, for the theme (but didn't get the piece framed yet, so it isn't in the show. It will be available with my next online shop release in early June). I‘ve been thinking about creating a series of work inspired by rising sea levels and Cape Cod for about a year, so expanding this work is on my upcoming list of projects. But, I’m out of the watercolor paper I had planned to use, and because of my no-buy year (artist's version), I am re-thinking how I want to make this series. Life As We Know It was painted with watercolor and ink on a piece of natural kozo paper that was handmade in Maine — I purchased it many years ago, back when I was primarily a calligrapher — and had been waiting to use it until the right project came along.

• I’ve been revisiting my own old work. I finished this piece, Another Trip to the Countryside, which was started during my art residency in France last May. I also painted a few related pieces, all of which will be available during my next online shop release in early June.

I hope these bring you some inspiration or encourage you to find your own moments of everyday beauty. I’d love to know, where have you been finding beauty, lately?

Thanks, as always, for your support,

Jocelyn

*I am an affiliate for bookshop.org, where each purchase supports independent booksellers. Purchasing the book through this link results in no extra cost to you but provides me with a small commission. No other links on this page are affiliate links.

Beyond the Studio with Jocelyn Elizabeth is an intimate behind-the-scenes look at my creative practice and life as an artist, writer and mom. Here, you can expect to find visual art, personal essays and poetry. My work explores the question of what it means to be alive from the interconnected lens of our human experience and the natural world, and I am interested in how we can live differently and better alongside the earth and each other. My portfolio and more information about me can be found at www.jocelynelizabeth.com.

Here are some ways you can access my art and writing:

• Collect original artwork. My online shop is open 2-3x/year for 2 weeks, after which, remaining inventory is painted over or repurposed.
  • My online shop is currently closed. The next releases are tentatively scheduled for June + November.
  • My Minted.com shop is occasionally updated with small works on paper or hand painted products (candles, globes, ornaments, etc.)
• Subscribe to my studio journal to receive my journal entries via email. You can subscribe as a free, paid or founding member.
  • For early access to original art launches plus more personal journal entries, referral rewards and free shipping, consider a paid subscription (starting at $5/month or $50/year)
• Want to support an individual piece of writing without subscribing? Support my work via a one-time payment, or forward to a friend!

xo Jocelyn