Joan Marie Giampa Image Archaeologist™

Mango's

2012-01-04T05:43:00.001-08:00

Mango's, 8 x 8, acrylic on canvas

Christmas Bulbs

2011-12-27T15:09:00.000-08:00

Red & Blue Christmas, 10 x 10. acrylic

Christmas Lights

2011-12-22T06:52:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays...I intend to begin posting smaller paintings again to begin my journey back to being a painter after a long hiatus. The dissertation is almost finished and it has consumed me these past 18 months. I am eager to paint like never before and am ready to channel new works...blessings to all in this season of giving.

Christmas Lights, 10 X 10, acrylic, 2011. $150.00

I am making it easy to purchase the works with paypal. Your patronage is appreciated. To begin the season I have a beautiful christmas balls painting available...

BACKDROP TO TWIN

2010-09-10T18:15:00.001-07:00

The Smell of The Sun

2010-09-10T17:41:00.000-07:00

THE PAINTER

2010-09-10T07:26:00.000-07:00

"The Painter"

The painter stood
Before her work
She looked around every where
She saw the pictures and she painted them
She picked the colors from the air

Green to green
Red to red
Yellow to yellow
In the light
Black to black
When the evening comes
Blue to blue
In the night

It's a long road
Behind me
It's a long road
Ahead

If you follow every dream
You might get lost
If you follow every dream
You might
Get
Lost.

She towed the line
She held her end up
She did the work of too many
But in the end
She fell down
Before she got up again

I keep my friends eternally
We leave our tracks in the sound
Some of them are with me now
Some of them can't be found

It's a long road behind me
And I miss you now

If you follow every dream
You might get lost
If you follow every dream
You might
Get
Lost.

The Gorge

2010-09-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

THE PEARL

2010-09-09T08:05:00.000-07:00

SPIRE

2010-09-09T07:24:00.000-07:00

Gesso Butt

2010-08-31T04:28:00.000-07:00

The Slathering

2010-08-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

After a bit of technology interruption I finally figured out how blogger wants me to format my video clips. This clip is the first in a series of clips that will build the "Twin" painting. The Jungle Book song playing in my head when I was slathering the gesso on the canvas apparently wanted to be known. The things we artist think about during a working session! Thanks for your patience with this blog as I will be posting again on a regular basis.

"TWINS"

2010-08-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

Today I began a new work called "Twin". It is inspired by readings about twin souls. The following excerpt from a blog called Soul to Soul explains the twin as follows:

Twin souls, also called Twin Flames or Twin Rays, are the other half of your soul. This is based on the belief that we are all parts of the Divine Being, God, All That Is, Source, Spirit, Creator. The Divine Being, in order to experience Its Self, divided into many souls, each in turn divided into many others and many others. The final splitting of the many neutrally gendered souls created male and female halves of a whole, the Twin Soul.

It is said that one does not meet their Twin Soul or Twin Flame until they have learned many lessons of love, loss and forgiveness through close Soul Mate relationships, that the heart is made resilient and strong through pain and loss, and must be so to face the intensity of being with the other half of their soul.

Many people who have met their Twin Soul had experienced a "Dark Night of the Soul", or a major spiritual transformation just prior to meeting, or upon meeting this soul. It's almost as if you need to be "emptied out" emotionally, spiritually and mentally as a test of your spirit. Meeting your "other half" can be a magical, maddening experience that opens your perceptions. Some experience an opening of their psychic awareness as their heart expands in this unbounded and unconditional love. The fact is, your life will not be the same, and whether you perceive this as a gift or a curse is the challenge of your soul's evolution. The Twin Soul connection is always a triad involving the Divine Spirit/All That Is, two people connected by soul, connected to God.

Before one can physically unite with their Twin Soul, one must do the conscious work of healing and becoming whole within their self. Twin Soul love cannot exist in a codependent, ego-based relationship, or from a perceived "need" that the other person will make you whole. Both must often face separations while they strengthen their own connection to Spirit and find their strength and purpose on their own.

Each half will find balance in their male/female, yin/yang before union. When both halves of the Soul become strong pillars on their own, have healed and resolved karmic ties in the present life, then they can unite to fulfill their Divine purpose, but the challenges do not end. There is an intensity that can be frightening when dealing with your mirror, your weaknesses and strengths magnified, unresolved issues and wounds painfully open to push you to further healing, or cause ego to run from the relationship in fear. It's important for Twin Souls to find their greater purpose, whether it's a task they will accomplish together, or alone, there will be work to be done.

Synchronicity plays an important part in twin soul meetings... I like to say that synchronicity is God's way of getting your attention. You may find similar experiences in the same time frames before you even met, marriages, births, divorces, illnesses. You may find that you had lived as neighbors in totally different towns at some point in your life's or vacationed in the same country at the same time.

synchronicity: the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality; used especially in the psychology of C. G. Jung

Meeting the "other half of your soul" is generally so life changing and profound that this question is unnecessary.... you just know. Twin souls will both recognize this extraordinary bond, whether they are evolved and whole enough to acknowledge and act upon it is another thing. Meeting with your twin soul brings about an internal spiritual revolution, a deeper connection and understanding of the Divine and the Universal Oneness, this is the greatest gift of knowing your twin. Twin soul love is not to be confused with an obsessive/compulsive disorder, it's not a desire to "possess" another, but truly a challenge to love unconditionally and without expectation, to be whole and complete within yourself before joining with the other whole and complete side of your soul. The longing and desire to be with your twin soul is intense, but through growth and perception can be seen as the greater longing to join with the Divine, and that is the true lesson, you are two halves of a much greater whole.

When you meet your twin, there will be no "game-playing" or manipulation, you will have the need to be transparently honest in your relationship and communication with one another. If there is karma from past lives to work out between you, it will be apparent and consciously worked out. If you or your twin is committed to another relationship, you will respect and honor that bond and realize the tests of unconditional love. Meeting your twin soul challenges you to grow spiritually, heal mentally, emotionally, physically, and to see beyond time, ego, and physical limitations. You will be driven with the desire to be the best manifestation of your soul on earth. This is not a relationship of hearts and flowers, but one that will be tested in fire and will endure beyond time and space.

This Past Summer

During my travels to Neah Bay in Washington State this summer I had a profound experience. I was sitting on the north western most tip of our beautiful United States of America--a place called Cape Flattery where you can stand where the Indians of Neah Bay once stood overlooking the cliffs. The Indians stood on this cliff for thousands of years would probably had many rituals and ceremonies on these cliffs.

I had my own ceremony and it was here that I decided to let my past loves, worries and fears about life go and sprinkled the petals of a rose over the cliff in memory of this letting go experience. On my way back up the trail I turned around once more looking back at my journey to this place and felt the wind blow through me. As I turned around to walk back up the path I looked up and there was a tree with this beautiful heart on it. The most beautiful heart I have ever seen on this big beautiful cedar tree. My journey was complete and I felt blessed in this moment of letting go. Tears of joy ran down from my face and I knew I had completed my journey and could walk safely into my future knowing that I had cleansed my past in preparation for the unscripted future.

Rhythm

2010-07-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone:
Its been several months since my last posting. This spring I finished my coursework in a long and adventurous Doctorate program. The good news is that I am rested and ready to start working again in my studio this summer.

I just got home from an eleven day journey to the Pacific northwest. I drove from San Diego to Neah Bay Washington and then to Birch Bay and finally Seattle. During this journey I was able to explore places I have never been before. My time in Neah Bay on the Makah indian reservation was by far the most profound and will be the launching point for my next series of work. The Makah indians lived by the sea and I am filled with imagery that will no doubt we sea worthy. I was also able to get closure for my heart at this special place. I processed my divorce this year and am happy to say that I am moving on into the spring of the other half of life.

That said, I hope to be posting more regularly from this point forward and thank you for reading my blog for the past two years. I hope to fill the pages up this summer with with new images and new beginnings for a new life full of a bright future and happiness.

The video I am posting is one I made while visiting my sister in Birch Bay on fourth of July. If you ever get the chance to see Birch Bay make sure it is on the fourth when the whole community lets off fireworks for hours around the bay. I felt like a pirate that night. What an incredible experience.

The video is about the rhythm of design and I made it for a job interview! The things we do for love!

Painting Anthropology: The Youtube Video

2010-04-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

Finally I can come up for air. Its been a few months of intensive work and research to put together, Painting Anthropology is complete and the theoretical framework is in place for the dissertation to come on synesthetic art. This is really exciting for me and I hope you enjoy it. There is a bridge who metaphored me to this place...a pilot friend of mine. thanks casilly...always!

Painting Anthropology: The Evolution of a Painting cont...

2010-03-08T16:52:00.000-08:00

My process has been about digging into the image and unearthing its skeleton. But where does my mind go during this process? My mind mirrors this unearthing process by placing itself into the world of super consciousness--a world in which time stands still and there is no space and time. It is a world where there is only conscience. The process and the space I go to are both simultaneously involved in this process of processing art.

This space I like to visit--"the space between", is a place that my mind switches over to while in the act of driving or painting. The space between is also known as the right brain modality of thinking. The magic picture books that propel your mind into this three dimensional space is an exercise into this realm. Gurus meditate to be in this place, and I do yoga to strengthen my presence of mind in this splace...meditation and prayer is the figure and the ground that is asking and receiving directions from this place...splace...middle ground and presence of mind...

I search for this place in my painting and am constantly bringing the image in and out of focus by painting layer after layer of paint and then wiping it away. The foreground and the background merge into the middle ground and the middle ground is where I try to get at and yet it is where I am when I get there in my mind. To describe it would be like watching a leaf drift to the ground in slow motion and see it dipping and weaving in and out of focus...

Painting Anthropology: The Evolution of a Painting

2010-03-03T00:09:00.000-08:00

Over the next several weeks I will be highlighting my journey into vlogging. Vlogging is my next step on my painters journey and I am starting with a painting called "Snake Pit". Each individual film posted, will eventually make up a digital story that I will post on my You Tube page. Your feedback is welcome.

Script:
Definition: Painting Anthropology is the archaeological dig into the subconscious mind of a painter. "Anthropology", pronounced /ænθrɵˈpɒlədʒi/, is from the Greek ἄνθρωπος, anthrōpos, "human", and -λογία, -logia, "discourse" or "study". And this film will study the evolution of a painting.
7.5 minutes of film showing in fast motion the development of a painting.
Narration: (voice over fast moving film)

"Snake Pit"
An Image has come into my head, “Snake Pit”. The object has taken on a life of its own. The objects (tulip tree twigs) represent ideas or events that are going on in my own life in a symbolic sort of way.

The image conjures up an extended family situation in which all the players are engaged in a sort of snake pit. The image came first, however, the situation, “the snake pit” followed. What is important is that the two ideas were separate and then became one and are being played out on the painting ground. The image has context and meaning to the artist. The spectator would never know this part of the magic. But the video will eventually unearth this reality to the spectator and shed some light on the artistic process.

Image Archaeology: Doctoral Exhibition

2010-02-18T11:34:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-13T16:02:00.000-08:00

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"

2010-01-21T07:51:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-19T09:56:00.001-08:00

Closure is necessary for the human spirit to revive!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2009-12-31T11:43:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-19T10:19:00.000-08:00

"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

2009-11-10T14:04:00.000-08:00

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.

Rapunzels Tower, 100" x 36", acrylic on canvas

2009-10-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

I have often wondered what happened to Rapunzel after she galloped off into the sunset with her gallant lover the charming prince. It occurs to me that Rapunzel may of had a difficult time adjusting to the "real world" after living in that tower for many long years. Her moral code must of been so finely established that when she engaged with the prince--her mirror-- she was not prepared for his world of instant chat rooms, Face book, Twitter, text messaging and skype.

You see Rapunzel spent many years honing her moral, and spiritual code of etchics--to a degree of such extreme rigidness and perfection--that she discovered she was more alone with her prince than when she lived by herself in the tower. She was used to her towers rotary telephone and notes written by hand. When she encountered her prince and mirrored to him her finely honed set of virtues, the prince did not reflect back to her the same degree of purity. And so her finely tuned world of fantasy was put to the test; and it so happened that when the two communicated, they were in such disagreement about how each perceived the world, that the prince got angry and sent her a text message to tell her they were done and to move on.

Rapunzel was so distraught by the abruptness of his actions that she did not know what to do. She spent thousands of dollars on therapy to tell her that the prince was selfish and not worthy of her; and that next time she would value herself more. When Rapunzel texted her confusion about the situation, he deleted her from his life at the flash of a finger tip, for in his world of virtual reality that was all it took. She was no longer his Facebook friend, twitter friend and he even deleted Rapunzel from his castle cell phone. Rapunzel was reduced to a delete button and was asked to leave the castle without discussion. Poor Rapunzel cried a moats worth of tears and cut all her hair off. She felt weak and unable to function, and her world turned from a bright blue sky to a thunderstorm of gray. Her moment of happiness turned into a nightmare called modern day relationships where men are from Mars and women are from Venus.

You see her prince was used to the real world and how people can come and go in your life in an instant. Rapunzel spent eons thinking about her little world in the tower and how the world should be and simply was not ready to climb out into the world of technology and fast moving jet engine air planes. Rapunzel was not used to all the rapid fire responses in the technology world whereby everyone is on constant response mode and spends little time formulating real thoughts that require reflection and form. So she went back to her tower and her prince went back to his worldly quest of conquering damsels in distress; and never truly spending the time it takes to get to know his damsels.

The prince loved the conquest, but failed miserably at the relationship because he had an adrenaline addiction...like most techno junkies on the planet today. The prince honed his skills of perfecting the rescue and compartmentalized his ability to communicate with his damsels. He was a selfish prince and life was about his terms that stemmed from his perfectionistic nature. His obsessive compulsive thinking backed his mind into a corner and fear stepped in where love should of bloomed. And in the end, his fears won out and he lost Rapunzel to his own mind. You see the prince was also a product of his environment where quick decisions could cost him his life and he was accustomed to staying the course of chosen action just like he learned during his knighthood training. He could not love Rapunzel for who she was for that required him to step out of his safe zone and accept the truest gift of all that Rapunzel had to offer...unconditional love.

Rapunzel had no problems adjusting back to her tower for it is a safe place to exist. She can look out at her blue moon again in perfect peace knowing that her world stays the same up there...peaceful and without drama. And she can love her prince in her mind and know its safe; and yearn for him in her heart remembering his warm and tender voice when he sang to her up in her tower and loved her from afar.

Waking Vision, 90" x 44", Acrylic on Canvas

2009-10-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

I had a dream this summer which turned into a waking vision. The dream was so real that it stayed with me for days and now it is a constant daily passenger in my thoughts. In the dream I was standing in front of all the souls in heaven being applauded. As I looked out over an ocean of souls into a mist of whites , purples and pinks, I felt completely loved in this sea of spirits and completely complete. The gift of the dream was that I was standing next to my twin soul--the one they say that is with you since the beginning of time. The audience that stood before us was noisy and active and chirping for the two souls before them who travelled such a long and weary journey to this place. They say that twin souls rarely come together on earth, but when they do it is a gift that is heaven sent. I had a dream this summer--a waking vision--and it remains a constant passenger in my thoughts.