Image Archaeology: Doctoral Exhibition

PRESS RELEASE - 02.18.10

JOAN MARIE GIAMPA
Image Archaeology: Doctoral Exhibition
Mar 22 - Apr. 2, 2010

Opening reception:
Wednesday, March 24, 5-7 p.m.

George Mason University Galleries is pleased to presents: "Joan Marie Giampa—Image Archaeology: Doctoral Exhibition." The exhibition opens Monday March 22nd with a reception on Wednesday March 24 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the Mason Hall Atrium Gallery.

Washington painter Joan Marie Giampa is presenting her doctoral exhibition at George Mason University. She has exhibited extensively in the mid-Atlantic region over the past 20 years. Giampa’s calls her painting process Image Archaeology and refers to herself as an “Image Archaeologist™. Her personal iconography is based on the discovery of objects in nature in their native environment.

“After finding an object, I take it home and digitize it with my camera. I then manipulate the photo in a software program called Photoshop to uncover the objects underlying structure. The uncovering process is really a series of filters that I use in Photoshop to remove the objects “outer skin” and reveal its “skeleton”. Once I feel I have the “skeleton”, I can then take the image to canvas.

I staple wet gessoed canvas onto my studio wall and project the image onto the canvas. I then carve into the wet gessoed canvas with the butt of a paintbrush an imprint of the “image skeleton”. I scrub into the surface ground with multiple layers of paint and rub paint into the grooves of the dried gesso surface. Additional layers of paint are then brushed lightly over the beveled edges of the image to unearth the skeletal impression. More layers of paint are brushed on and wiped away as the image becomes the surface ground and the surface ground becomes the image. It is this process of digging into the canvas and discovering the object within the corporeal ground that makes it “Image Archaeology” ™.

Giampa has an MFA in painting from the University of Maryland. She is a candidate in the DACCE (Doctorate of Arts Community College Education) program at George Mason University and will advance to candidacy in the summer of 2010. Joan is the owner and operator of the Red Caboose Gallery in historical downtown, Vienna, Virginia and president of the Arts Alliance of Vienna; a group that is dedicated to invigorating an awareness and growth of a township style community arts scene.

George Mason University
Mason Hall Atrium
4400 University Drive,
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
703-349-7178

Happy Valentines Day

A Valentines Day Song...by singer songwriter John Mayer...Heartbreak Warfare...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pukH72Z8Xe0
...this is an awesome Valentines Day for me...much happiness and joy in the heart chakra lately...looking forward to the coming year and finishing the doctoral studies that have consumed me for the past five years... Life begins this Spring!  Can't wait for the Gorge this Fall...sojourn of closure...

My utube Art 21 Video "Earth Objects"

In preparation for my doctoral exhibition at George Mason I have developed a video for my work to coincide with the opening of the exhibition in March. Details to follow...

Closure

Closure is necessary for the human spirit to revive!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Vienna Virginia had a huge snow a few weeks ago. The timing was providential as I was invited to paint an image for the cover of Viva Tyson Magazine. The owner asked me to do the caboose in the snow. Apparently he loved my other caboose painting. When I was a child I would paint a snow scene every year at Christmas, so this is in alignment with my true spirit.

This has been an amazing year in so many ways for this artist. I opened a gallery and studio and school all in the same venue/space. I have had the opportunity to work with so many people. I really feel blessed to have the opportunity to do this. I also established the Arts Alliance of Vienna. We are working together in a symbiotic relationship to bring a greater awareness of art to the greater Vienna area.

My personal life took many turns this year as well. I separated from my husband after eleven years and wish him well. My daughter Giovanna is getting ready to graduate from College. She has taken after her mom in that she is a computer graphic artist. She will be residing in Venice, Italy full time next year. I will miss her as she is my heart. My son, Jeremy, the football player for Madison Highschool will graduate this year. He is off to school in the fall as an accounting major. He will, of course, do well. My younger boys, Aubrey and John Nicholas are doing well in their new school, Vienna Elementary. We moved this summer back into town. I am a true townie. I also went to Vienna Elementary school, so it is a natural fit for them.

I am preparing to finish my coursework in the doctorate program at George Mason this spring. After four long and hard years, I will finally advance to candidacy and prepare the ground for my dissertation. Hopefully by spring of next year I will be finished and everyone in the hotel industry can address me as Dr. Giampa. My greatest wish is to land a full time teaching position so I can finally begin to relax a little and enjoy my life without all the extra work involved in a doctorate program.

My wish is that all the children in the world have warm beds to sleep in and a full belly. God bless you and happy new year.

A Pilots View, Acrylic, 60" x 60", 2009

"Pilots View" is a painting that is inspired by a friend of mine who is a pilot. He flies to the middle east, Australia, and Hawaii frequently to deliver packages from America. I often wonder what the earth looks like from a "pilots view". If I were to imagine the sky from above, I would see little bubbles of light that flicker through the clouds to expose the earth below. I have embellished a little in this painting, as the view is skewed, as the pilots perspective is beyond the flying range somewhere in outer space.

A pilots life must be filled with adventure. Pilots must  have many good friends in different parts of the world.  Pilots are special people indeed!  Their lives are truly blessed with the gift of flight and the ability to wander the earth in search of themselves.

Pod Widow, Acrylic on canvas, 66 x 66

I am staying in this pink and purple pallete from summer. The pod was found one evening when I took my sons to their playground in the school yard. It was left behind on the bench and I came upon much like I do all my earth objects with unexpected pleasure. The gift was that it was there waiting for me and so I took it home and photographed it and then added it to my magnolia pod collection.

I was at a friends house this past weekend for a social event and had some show cards with the original "Ipod" image on them. It was the first of my earth object series. Someone mentioned that it looked like a penis. I never thought of it that way. To me it looks like a beautiful magnolia pod that has been embedded into the ground of my painting.

This pod is passionate and still and she waits for a brighter future.