When you first meet Joanna, her welcome is warm and you feel automatically safe within her presence. Her motherly energy teeters on the edge of goddess, with her flowing white dress, long hair and crystal jewelry consciously placed over her body.
We walk through her home and into her backyard where we have our date together. As I follow her past the white linen bed sheets and outdoor bathtub, I am welcomed into a fairy garden oasis of flowers, plants and butterflies dancing around us. Feeling slightly out of place in my vintage La Coste top, I am glad I decided to pair it with my white linen skirt.
Sitting on a blanket, Joanna shuffles her Kuan Yin Oracle cards, while her crystals, freshly brewed tea and Tibetan Singing bowl dances in the sunlight, I am instantly calmed and feel held by not only by her beautiful backyard, but by being in Joanna's presence.
Now, I don’t mean to make this sounds like I am about to go on a 12 hour Ayahuasca trip in Melbourne's inner North, however, I want to paint the picture of what it feels like to be with Jo. She is calm, kind and always wanting to provide a space for you to feel comfortable. It’s with this energy, we begin our interview, where I learn that Joanna's artwork is what's made her the kind, ethereal woman that sits before me.
To open our conversation I ask Jo, what’s been Too Much for her lately?
“I felt for so long in my life that I have always tried so hard to be the opposite of too much. I think I've always kind of dismissed a lot or pushed away a lot of emotions or behaviors because I just didn't want to be too much.”
As a first-generation Vietnamese Australian, Jo found it difficult to express herself and her needs as a girl. From a young age she experienced deep trauma, suffering through her adolescence without direction or support when it was needed. As she struggled to speak fluently in both English and Vietnamese, she took to painting to express herself, finding solitude and healing through her artwork. Something that continues to be the major theme in her work today.
Throughout Joanna’s body of work, there’s a distinct thread that connects her pieces together. Her ancestry and Vietnamese heritage pulses from the canvas straight into your soul. The grounding red hues intertwined with ethereal figures giving space for you to feel what she felt in her adolescence, while simultaneously holding you in the safety of their warmth.
As I refill my tea, I look to the Kuan Yin Oracle cards that sit in between us, noticing the similarities between Jo’s work and the artwork depicted of the Buddhist Goddess.
The connection between Jo’s artwork and the Chinese Goddess of mercy, Kuan Yin, is no accident, yet potentially part of her on a deeper level. Jo explains that her mother handed her to the goddess Kuan Yin when she was still in the womb, as a sign of devotion and love, to protect and show her the practice of compassion and forgiveness. A connection that Jo still feels and implements to this day.
“When I started diving deeper into my spiritual practice, I think that it kind of leaked into my creative practice as well. I think creativity and spirituality are almost enmeshed, like they exist at the same time and is so important for each thing to evolve.”
The relationship between her spiritual and creative practice is imperative for Jo to create her work. One cannot happen without the other. Her art is created through the communication between her and her ancestors, guides and Kuan Yin.
Her painting is a dance that helps her through the healing journey. She moves through a flow like state, painting intuitively and allowing herself to be enveloped within the process, with guidance from her ancestors;
“A lot of it has been planned, but most of the time it's almost intuitive, like different things that come out, and when I step back and look at it, I like, try and make sense even more of what I'm looking at and I'm like oh! Was that my choice or was that my ancestor's choice?”
Throughout her life, Jo has dealt with traumatic situations, moments of depression, anxiety and poor physical health. The pain that she has experienced would stop some of us in our tracks, however Jo has channeled that pain into her art, processing the generational trauma and healing through the canvas. She bravely faces her pain with courage and the empathy for not only herself, but those around her also.
“I think, I've always felt that my pain was too much and I was always scared to open up about when I'm feeling upset or when I feel like I need someone or when I feel like I need support.”
Much like her deity Kuan Yin, Jo walks through life with compassion and empathy at the forefront of her being. Her artwork is not only a way of expressing herself, yet it’s also a way to communicate to others that they’re not alone in their healing journeys, to trust in themselves and not fear what life has in store.