In the ate­lier today is painter Cathie Joy Young, whose work first came to my atten­tion via Twit­ter. In perus­ing her port­fo­lio online, I found I really had to stop and study each piece to try and inter­pret the mean­ing. The sto­ries are not under­stood at first glance. It's intrigu­ing that Cathie her­self feels the sto­ries are not hers, but rather bor­rowed.  The col­ors are rich, the abstract fig­ures always con­vey­ing emo­tion. With the artist as the con­duit for these visions, the viewer is invited to dive in and explore.

In her own words, here is Cathie Joy Young:

"Shall the Meek?" by Cathie Joy Young, acrylic on wood panel

1)   What path led you to your life as an artist?

My Dad was a painter. When my brother and I were very young both par­ents encour­aged us to draw and later to paint. My Dad painted in oils and his stu­dio was in our home so I was around it all the time.

When I was about 12 my Dad started show­ing my work along­side his own at casual out­door art shows. It was all rep­re­sen­ta­tional work. I sold occa­sion­ally and that was inspir­ing. When I would get too cre­ative – as in work from my imag­i­na­tion instead of from ref­er­ence it was frowned upon because I was actu­ally mak­ing good pocket money doing water color roses and pen and ink horses. I did not take art classes in high school and was not active with art again until I decided to apply to art school. I fig­ured I needed to go to col­lege and I really did not want to have to deal with required under­grad­u­ate classes like math and sci­ence so I thought  a pri­vate art col­lege was the way to go. I got accepted to the Pacific NW Col­lege of Art in Port­land, OR, and intended on major­ing in Graphic Design. Half way through my first year I changed my major to paint­ing. After grad­u­a­tion I worked in restau­rants and painted at home and would show occa­sion­ally. Even­tu­ally I got art-related jobs so that I could make a liv­ing that way. I worked at a stag­ing and prop com­pany called Stage Right. I free-lanced at dec­o­ra­tive paint­ing jobs and then I con­tracted to McMe­namin’s and did mural work in their var­i­ous hotels, the­aters and pubs.  After leav­ing that job there were a few years when I did not paint at all, and then in 2005 I started all over again in a com­pletely dif­fer­ent way.

Since then I’ve been show­ing my work at var­i­ous gal­leries and shows in the US and sell­ing my work inter­na­tion­ally online.

"Inside Mir­a­cle" by Cathie Joy Young, acrylic on wood panel

2)   Please describe three sources of inspi­ra­tion for your art.

My inspi­ra­tion comes from painters I came across while I was in art school years ago and from authors I read going back as far as child­hood. The visual artists I most admire are Odil­lon Redon, Marc Cha­gall, Ivan Gen­er­alic, El Greco, and many of the Expres­sion­ists as well as medieval painters. The writ­ers who have helped shape the way I think are Her­mann Hesse, Aldous Hux­ley, John Galswor­thy, Thomas Hardy, Doris Less­ing, Tove Jans­son, and George McDon­ald. Besides the listed artists and writ­ers I am also inspired by the act of paint­ing. What I mean by this is that the very action of pro­duc­ing inter­est­ing imagery keeps me going.

"Egypt­ian Faïence" by Cathie Joy Young, acrylic on wood panel

3)   What was the last item you brought home from a trip? Where did you go, and why that item?

I was recently in Hawaii and I brought home shells, coral, and inter­est­ing small rocks that I found at the beach. I really like rocks and shells and I always try to bring home a rock from wher­ever I go. I stayed away from bring­ing home a lava rock though because my Hawai­ian friend told me I would be cursed if I did. I don’t like to take chances with curses!

"Unex­pected Clues" by Cathie Joy Young, acrylic on wood panel

4)   Please fill in the blank: If I was not an artist, I’d be:

A writer of books.

"Open­ing Sky" by Cathie Joy Young, acrylic on wood panel

5)   What advice do you have for peo­ple who are afraid to buy art?

The pur­chase of Art has a dif­fer­ent and more endur­ing value than say the lat­est Iphone. The lat­ter will be out­dated in a few months and need to be replaced in a cou­ple of years. A piece of art is age­less and time­less and if you really love it, you always will.

"Astro Coo" by Cathie Joy Young, acrylic on wood panel

I hope you've enjoyed get­ting to know Cathie a lit­tle bet­ter! Please visit her web­site to see more of her work. You can also email her at catjoy@cathiejoyyoung.com or shop online here. Please leave a note and let me know what you think of these fas­ci­nat­ing pieces!