In the competitive world of art with more starving artists than successful, Joanne Casey is a bit of an anomaly.
The Palm Desert resident has been a self supporting, full-time artist for 40 years, drawing a faithful following who enjoy her colorful, and textural collages focused on landscapes, figures, and abstract composition.
“I have a wonderful career traveling to wonderful places and meeting interesting artists,” she says. “I have also made so many friends over the years.”
Casey has a studio in Paul Desert and has resided in the desert for more than 25 years. She loves dining on the patio at Las Casuelas Café and getting her exercise by walking up and down El Paseo.
Although, she playfully admits, “It’s more fun for me because I look in all the galleries and it keeps me up to date. I love seeing the amazing creativity being produced by other artists.”
Illuminating a Blank Canvas
Casey (pictured at right with her husband, Patrick Casey) characterizes her work as a mixture of painting and handmade papers:
“Mixed media collage on canvas with texture and dimension…not flat.”
- “There are not a lot of current people working with handmade paper…it has a very tactile, touchie attraction.”
- “I use a variety of color palettes including bold and modern colors as well as earthy, natural desert tones.”
- “I paint and layer to create abstract and stylized landscapes and figures…but my “Best Friends” series is very popular.”
- “The most rewarding thing for me is when a customer responds on a personal and emotional level with a piece I’ve created,” she says. “When there’s a connection and it has meaning to people or relates to their lives.”
Her fans will recognize her artwork as the “marketing image” for La Quinta’s Art Under the Umbrella’s shows and now, as the featured artist for the prestigious ArtWalk in Indian Wells, Feb. 22-23, produced by West Coast Artists.
Casey says she is “thrilled I was picked for this honor because this show has such quality artists and an excellent variety of fine arts mediums,” she says. “I’ve had a long relationship with West Coast Artists, and I first showed with them almost 30 years ago.”
Art History
Casey began her career in the early 1970s first as a graphic artist while spending evenings and weekends developing her own style and series of paintings. It was at a small, weekend art show at La Cienaga in Hollywood that Casey began to pursue independent art as her career.
“It was the '70’s”, she elaborates, “and outdoor art shows were just beginning but eventually, I made more money on the weekends with my own art than at my job, so I decided to take the leap.”
With painting as her primary form of expression, she added the fine art of papermaking a bit later. Now, Casey not only makes her own paper, she collects beautiful papers from all over the world to incorporate into her art.
“It was like cooking from scratch,” she says. “I love the process of using natural ingredients and using a technique that has been around for ages.”
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