The Art of Joy Frangiosa “I have been one acquainted with the night.” The camera makes its familiar click as the shutter opens for a moment capturing the light. “I have walked out in rain - and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light.”
She covers herself and stares at the old mausoleum, remembering. “I have looked down the saddest city lane.” Her eyes water from the quiet storm raging inside and out. “I have passed by the watchman on his beat and dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.”
She strolls out where the sidewalk ends, where the quiet world meets the city. “I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet when far away an interrupted cry came over houses from another street, but not to call me back or say good-bye;” The camera clicks to capture an angle in stone, frozen, a weathered moment among the granite over the hallowed ground.
“And further still at an unearthly height, a luminary clock against the sky proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.” Click. “I have been one aquainted with the night.”
When she returns to her desk the magic begins. Photographs, cut, scoured, lines and letters, poetry, paint brush, medium. Medium, because she’s calling out the spirit which touched her in that moment, that memory, lost and nearly forgotten, here now breathing through this canvas, suspended and alive.
This is the story of Joy, a visual artist who uses the world around her to create. Incorporating various media, photography and found objects, she uses her art to tell stories and reveal truth as a self proclaimed “chronicler of time, places and people.”
Born in New Jersey, she spent her childhood in a Catholic Institution and her experiences are reflected in her art, often incorporating shrines and religious symbols. She has spent thousands of hours developing her techniques and says, “each creation frees a part of my inner self lessening my imposing sensitivity towards life.”
She likes to capture forgotten moments, honoring the nameless, dispossessed, castaways of society that often go unnoticed. Her goal, to bring our attention to this neglect and reveal its beauty for the hope it inspires.
“My objectives are to promote awareness of societal issues through exhibits and to remain involved with my community by giving and supporting agencies that bring hope and recognition to our most vulnerable people and places.”
“I want to inspire those I meet to embrace their hardships. As an artist I endeavor to aide in helping others to find their strengths and abilities through the arts.” - Joy Frangiosa.
Acquainted with the Night poem by Robert Frost. Story by James Pierce.
