JOANNE PERKINS

"My artworks are often small sections of bigger pieces. Much like quotations. I call them my inklings

 

Making art with ink is a homage to my love of literature and words and my training as a printmaker. Ink is like me: transparent, unpredictable, and in constant movement!"

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Joanne's works are joyful, energetic, and a little wild! She explores the dance between freedom and control, the heart and the mind, embodied in the calligraphic practice of 'brushmind'. Her approach combines free-flowing mark-making using inks and brushes, with her love of books and script. Her compositions sometimes break free of the confines of wall-hung work onto cylindrical or accordion-style folded paper sculpture. 

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Embracing the visceral joy of spilling, pouring, splashing, layering, and guiding the marks, Joanne sometimes makes her own tools from feathers, branches, flotsam, and jetsam or even a mop and bucket. 

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Until 2021 Joanne lived in Paris, teaching English literature and Art for almost 30 years. A course in East Asian calligraphy, with Zen master Kazuaki Tanahashi, revealed a new direction to Jo,  eembracing life in Brighton as a full-time artist and part-time laughter yoga teacher. Since relocating Joanne has been hugely inspired by the beauty and energy of the sea. Taking a beach hut for the winter has enabled her to capture the sensational sunsets we have been treated to.