Jo Gamel is a multidisciplinary artist living in Philadelphia. Her process is heavily influenced by the practice of Art-as-Therapy, which she studied at the Master’s level at Antioch University Seattle. She has lived as an ESL instructor in Sweden and Turkey and traveled to over 28 countries, including award-funded trips to Finland and Russia, all of which have informed her anthropological interests in goddesses, religious architecture, feminism, and theology. Her family's mixed spiritualities include Judaism, Polish Catholicism, English and Irish Episcopalianism, Celtic Wiccan, and Japanese Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. Her work has been shown in galleries in Philadelphia, New York City, Seattle, and New Jersey.
Jo Gamel is the founder of Tutor of the Arts LLC, as well as an art education instructor, a private tutor, a curator, and an art gallery assistant. Currently, she is co-authoring a textbook on the chemistry and physics of oil paint with Dr. Michael Mackay to expand the understanding of the creation of archival paintings. Additionally, she is debuting a Hard Rock album with her band, Jüpiter, alongside her latest body of work, both of which explore the Power of Venus as employed by female Rock musicians.
Can you tell us about your journey as an artist and how you discovered your passion for art?
My first creative encounters were in the home of my aunt in California. Aunt Jone lived alone on a ranch high in the Rocky Mountains surrounded by peach orchards, where she created colorful clay crucifixes. Each time we visited her, I would ask if we could play with the clay. On the walls, Aunt Jone displayed her oil pastel drawings of girls from across the globe, inspired by photographs printed in National Geographic magazine. There were also oil painting portraits of women in my family, painted by women in my family. I remember sitting on my mother's lap there and asking her to show me how to draw a girl. Watching the lines form eyes and eyelashes, I thought it was absolutely alchemy!
How would you describe your style, and what influences or inspirations have shaped your work?
The last decade's experiences in the dozens of Turkish cities, roads, and landscapes I have visited have given me direct footing on the sites of Temples to Inanna at Hattusha, Catholic monks' paintings of Saints at the Gorme necropolis, Rumi's mausoleum and mosque in Konya. Time spent dwelling in the crossroads of the world has put me in touch with the realm of Saint Empress Theodora in Istanbul, Upis' image at the citadel of Ankara, and Pharaoh Cleopatra's wedding temple at Antalya.
Earlier, I went to Saint Elanor's Catholic School, and I was pretty preoccupied with Saints there. For a couple of summers, I went to a Jewish day camp. Later, at The Governor's School for the Arts, I was lent a copy of the Koran from an Egyptian friend. On Sundays, my mother took us to the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist temple. Every Tuesday, I would take myself there for our group meditation. The scrolls and shrines directly influenced my sculptural work. Some years later, I had a scholarship to study Eastern-Baroque architecture in Russia, where I was most interested in the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.
When I was a teenager, I also went to youth group and Mormon morning school because it was an expectation when I was dating the son of a Mormon bishop. At the Church of The Latter-Day Saints, there were gorgeous, oversized paintings of Jesus performing miracles, and once I went with the bishop's family to see Gladys Knight, who had converted to Mormonism, perform with her choir.
My father was a pipe organist, so I went to countless holy spaces with him, wandering around the empty apses, aisles, and altars of the churches while he practiced at the organ. This happened very often, throughout the year. In each church he played, I was added to the choir. Though the pipe organ still seems like a dry and rhythmless soundtrack for an adolescent, I understand now that this was intimate and precious exposure to these sanctuaries.
Meanwhile, my older sister wanted to rebel from the chambers of Catholic school, so she started a small library of Wiccan books, which, of course, as the younger sibling, I was forbidden to touch. So, of course, I read them all. My favorite thing in the library was the Celtic Tree Tarot, and I kept it sanctified on an altar for over a decade.
More than contemporary art, it is these multicultural religious experiences that color my work.
In my work from the past year, a new influence has enlightened my ideas: female rock n roll and metal musicians. The story begins when I was 14; I had a 5-string bass, and I wanted to play music like Iron Maiden - classically-influenced heavy metal with operatic vocals. However, I was a 14-year-old girl, and the boys at my middle school who were willing to play rock n roll told me directly that they did not want a girl in their band. I was heartbroken for a while, though I never stopped writing songs for other rock and metal bands. After working as a ghost lyricist for a band called Enforcer, I met the band's other ghost lyricist, and he took a lot of interest in my musical compositions. Now we're recording a metal album in Sweden with our band Jupiter, and I'm creating an illustrated libretto for this project. This rebirth has inspired me to look to the Venusian paths of the trailblazing women who came before me and honor them. My work now deifies a pantheon of what I call "Rock Goddesses" as it mixes in with my everlasting reverie with multicultural spiritual imagery.
What challenges have you encountered throughout your art practice, and how have you overcome them?
A Tina Turner-esque unflappable will to move forward is probably what it takes to get over anything in life. I personally found working in institutions to be restrictive. It felt to me like they owned what I could think, say, do, where I could go, how I could represent myself and identify. This all came down to what they thought would support them financially. So, I started my own tutoring business, Tutor of the Arts LLC, which is more lucrative than an adjunct salary at what was my dream school. Of course, money doesn't mean much more than art supplies, a plane ticket, food, and shelter to me, so making more neither replaces nor fulfills my dream of teaching women to find themselves as artists and believe in their craft. Therefore, I usually only accept female students into my tutoring space. Eventually, I would like to open an arts center with a strong focus on honoring the divine feminine creative energy.
Can you share a memorable experience that had a significant impact on your career as an artist?
Virago Gallery in Seattle was the first gallery to invite me to exhibit after I had enrolled in grad school. It was a boutique gallery that sold paintings, sculptures, jewelry, and crafts made by women. As I began my journey as an independent curator of artwork made by women, I remember how essential it was to have that space for emerging artists like me. Similarly, Moore College, at one time the only all-girls art college in the world, was also an important space for me to grow. There I had studied personally under the art director of Philadelphia, Moe Brooker, whose faith in me and whose belly laughs will always be treasured in memory.
How do you approach the creative process? Could you walk us through the steps you take from idea generation to the final artwork?
In my current series, "Rock Goddesses," I have a whiteboard on which is an ever-growing list of the names of women musicians as people suggest new and unheard artists to me. It is a lot of fun to be the collector of these names. I like that this painting series is drawing the Rock Goddesses to me as much as I am drawn to them. I also find new subjects at record stores. If there is a woman musician in the band, I will buy the vinyl, even if I am totally unfamiliar with the music. In the studio, I play the record and begin researching the subject's interviews, discography, and other media. I look especially for moments in the subject's life where she leans into what I call "The Power of Venus" - a divine feminine energy. From there, I sprinkle in my longstanding religious and spiritual visual influences, and I begin sketching the portraits. I typically stretch my own linen canvases and size them with rabbit skin glue and powdered marble. I use a careful combination of mixed media on the surface to create glittering, gilded, glow-in-the-dark images of these icons and idols.
Have there been any significant milestones or achievements in your artistic career that you are particularly proud of? Please elaborate.
The first exhibit I curated was very special to me. I was able to invite and display work by some of my most influential contemporaries. Contextualizing my own work with the work that inspires me, and frequently work that I have inspired too, significantly demonstrates how my work and the work of my contemporaries relate to each other and what questions we jointly explore. I think it shows that there is a living and breathing pulse in our artwork that, in time, will crystallize and demonstrate a movement in which we don't know we currently exist. Additionally, it was meaningful to have a solo show that ran for two months straight due to its popularity and then to be asked to follow it by curating another show of whatever I desire in that space. I have continuously curated every month since that first exhibit in 2020.
What advice would you give to aspiring artists who are just starting their artistic journey? Are there any lessons you've learned along the way that you would like to share?
I have repeatedly encountered this lesson: branding matters. Institutions have a whole rainbow of various reputations and motivations, which will affect how other people read you and your work. Your associations can change your ability to be hired at certain galleries, exhibited with certain people, sponsored by certain grants and awards. It is important to know what your end goal is, in great detail, before you begin.
What was your favorite part of the Artist Navigation Course? What was valuable to you?
The structure and regularity were what I needed most, and I found the guided weekly tasks to be hugely helpful. Those tasks helped me because sometimes I am thinking, "Oh, I need to paint this so I can put it on a tarot card and then add it to my website and announce the drop as a reel." I needed this guidance to say, "This week we are only focusing on the website." It was the right time to put some things aside so I could focus on making bigger goals. The accountability was fantastic too. Not only did it help me develop a habit of setting and following deadlines, but it also helped me break away from energy vampires with a simple, "Sorry, I can't help you. I have class. Maybe someone else can help." I felt freed and refreshed by this course. It's a real spellbreaker! I highly recommend it to anyone feeling like they have outgrown their antediluvian scallop shell and might be seeking a bright new lodestar.
