I am a photographer and mixed media artist. I want my art to tell a story and lead the viewer in a journey of both physical and spiritual dimensions. I want to touch their souls as well as their senses. On a personal level, I find peace in the solitude of nature and in the act of creating. It is a form of meditation for me as I become totally submerged.
Jettie artwork became an online presence in 2014. The site showcases my photo collages, paintings, and other “inspirational art.”
Biography
My earlier profession as a structural designer sent me across the United States, to China and Venezuela. Environmental studies sent me to Costa Rica. Living in these areas has influenced my outlook as an individual and artist by giving me an appreciation for diversity in culture and spaces. I now reside and have a studio in South Charleston, WV, and my occupation is that of an artist. I prefer to use the term “ artist” rather than a photographer because my passion is working to create artistic images by sketching and painting composite photographs using Photoshop and LR software.
I did start out as a painter in oils, watercolor, pen and ink and colored pencil drawings. At that time, I only used photographs to paint and sketch from. I didn’t consider photography an “art form” until I started creating black and white photographs in my own darkroom. It was magical! With the advent of digital cameras, it was a natural progression for me to create “photo collages.”
I studied art and photography at Charleston University, WV State, and Houston Texas community colleges.
As a photographer, I published a series of black and white still life photographs in a literary/art magazine in Texas (The Ink Well). I have exhibited black and white photographs in Texas colleges (Houston area) and both photographs and photo-collages in Overland Park, Kansas and Charleston, WV. Many years ago, I exhibited and sold paintings (both oil and watercolor) and pen and ink drawings in the Rhododendron festival in Charleston, WV as well as various shops and libraries throughout the state and in Florida. Recent exhibits have been with the Nomadic Tribes Collective Art in the Forest festival, “Artmares”, East end Bazaar and the Art Factory in Kansas.
Other Creative Skills
Architecture, Drawing, Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Jewelry-making, Painting, Photography, Sculpting