I'm lucky enough to have met Joanna two years ago through some friends of mine. She was in fact one of my first real friends when I moved to London... Growing up in Romania, Joanna says "I come from a big family of artists. It would have been weird I guess, if I didn't draw", and from drawing ever since she was a kid, Joanna has developed a really strong passion for creating.
It's weird right now, because I'm in a job where I'm lucky enough to be able to supply the money to do my creative work, but I just don't get the time... so I guess I don't do it as much right now. It's hard to give 8 or 9 hours in a job and then come home and do another 8 to 9 hours in what I love
Hearing Joanna say that is something that I think a lot of artists can relate to. You might not always get your dream job straight away and it's finding the time and passion inside yourself to keep going and creating, even when you're just too tired. It's a really tough industry and you need to push yourself online, as well as with your work, to be noticed and put in front of the right eyes.
It's about what I'm gonna leave, the legacy maybe for other generations. I always joke that Van Gogh is my best friend. My friend Vincent, yeah, I feel like I'm gonna sell stuff after I die!
I was keen to find out more about what inspires Joanna as an artist so I asked her to explain to me what it meant for her to 'be inspired'.
I think I read today somewhere that inspiration and creativity is the ability to put unconnected stuff together. So if you think about it, everything we see is an inspiration.
Something I find really unique about Joanna is that she has the ability to switch up styles and totally change her work. The concept of this is something that some artists might find really terrifying but Joanna uses it to her advantage. "It's just about the brief and what that brief means to me", which is honesty at its best.
Recently Joanna's had her work featured in 'This must be for you', Sofar sounds and Eat, Sleep, Draw.
During the day, Joanna is marketing manager at Sir John Cass halls and has a really great connection to the art students living there. "It's cool because I'm surrounded by students and a lot of them are creative, so we get to chatting about art all the time and inspire the other."
The dream job for her though, would be something that allows her to travel and meet new people and just be able to create everyday. She's got a plan...
I feel soon I'm going to jump into the unknown and live off noodles for a few months. I've had this idea for a while now about starting my own creative holidays and workshops for people. Bringing same minded people together and going away, creating together and helping inspire. I know how to do it, but it's going to be a lot of time and noodle living to save money.
In Joanna's limited spare time, her secret skill is drumming. "If something's really bothering me, I just go and drum it out. Kill the drums and then I'm fine." With no real plans to ever be in a band, she did in fact have one goal...
No honestly, it's true, I want to be a professional drummer by the age of 75. I'm being really serious about that, I just love it so much.
Whatever the near future holds for Joanna, I know she's the kind of person to embrace and make the most of it. I've never met someone with such a determination to share her creativity and constantly evolve with what's going on around her. Watch this space, great things to come, and I hope we can be involved and help her on her journey here at Gather.ly...
Check out Joanna's blog and follow her on Instagram.
