I can't help myself when discussions turn to Joni's art. I have to open my big mouth. Granted, I've never seen any of her art in person, so feel free to take what I have to say with a grain of salt.
I've never felt that Joni's work was anything beyond good illustration. I've not been impressed with any sort of individualism, any real personal style. So much of her influences show up blatantly on canvas. I'm guessing that the "flatness" means that she doesn't modify colors enough to make things seem more 3 dimensional. I don't see anything wrong with her relying on colors for expression and content, though. In subtler ways, that's what the color field painters did- people like Rothko. In bolder ways- Pollock. Once it was pointed out to me (by Kakki?) that she was also influenced by the Canadian plains artists, things came together for me. I see her work now as mainly naive, not in a negative sense, but as a style known for those who have not had formal training and whose use of perspective, line, color and composition are used intuitively, much like a child. Still, if this creative outlet is what gives her the most pleasure, then that's fine with me. She has a good eye, good drawing techniques; she just needs to work on developing her own style, IMHO. Terry, ready for the flames- I think << I'm interested in art history, but am woefully ignorant of art techniques (which I suppose, is like being interested in physics but not knowing math), so I was both fascinated by what John Irving wrote: <<Her form painting is flat because she hasn't figured out form painting on her own -which is based entirely, well predominately- on color value. Given her impulsive nature, I can't imagine her ever having the patience to master form painting based on value. It's so by the numbers. She's so attached to the idea of color hues as expressive content and metaphor. It's hard to believe she'd ever give up that "freedom" and start squinting for values. The rules of impressionism work great for sweeping panoramas and vistas, but they don't work for planes that are an inch or so apart. Compliments don't make form in a face. -The area she's improved with masterfully is the chromatic values of the TI paintings. Her use of titanium white to bring the values higher really kills many of the earlier paintings. It's what helps make them so flat. -Thankfully, her sharp eye is seeing how the master's did it: lighter tube colors of the same hue, and intermixing hues to make value changes. Not white. Not black.>> I may have the wrong term, but I had kind of concluded that Joni's style, while reeling from complete abstractiop, through impressionism, to more-or-less realism, was centered on the fauvist idea of the use of color -- just as John said (in different words, of course). As for my ignorance, I don't know what "value" means, what "form painting" is, nor what "flatness" refers to -- does it have to do with perspective, or it more involved with the manner in which she paints? I'm going now to look it up in my art referneces, but i thought I'd ask here also in case anyone else was puzzled, intrigued, etc.
