Joan Dance

Joan Dance

Joan Dance’s  Aunts and Mother

Hello, My name is Joan Dance, Jo Ann really, I live in Paducah Kentucky, and I am widowed since 2007, my Husband’s name was Tommie Lee Dance. Before that I had another Husband, My first Husband’s name was Eddie Edmonds Jr.

I have been asked about my children.
Well I know I’ve got five children, all are grown, and gone, and I’ve got eight grandchildren, and about ten or eleven great-grandchildren, I say ten or eleven because I’ve got some foster also, and I’ve got nieces and nephews, one sister, and a lot of cousins.

The Birth Of The Art

I have been painting since 1989. When I first started painting I had what has been called “Empty Nest Syndrome”. The children having grown, were now gone. From this time until 1994 I honed my craft so to speak until it burst forth and flowered, showing itself fully developed in what seemed like overnight.

For many years I had been praying and asking God to give me something that I could do from my home, and He gave me all that I could handle and then some. I started getting this urge, it seemed like something was telling me to paint our church, but I didn’t want to do it. I knew people would say, that’s strange, a woman of my age drawing and painting, and so forth. I fought the urge for a week or more, until finally, I felt like, if I didn’t paint that church, I would die, so I painted that church, and said, that’s the end of that, but the urge continued. I painted ten to twelve and maybe fourteen churches in this general area, and whenever we would be out riding if I saw a church that looked easy, I would sketch it and paint it too, of course all of those sold, except I have that first painting that I ever did of the church where we used to belong to, I’ve still got it, where, I don’t know, but it’s here in the house somewhere.

Image of the first church

Nancy Flowers

Since then, I started selling through a Local Gallery, Gallery 600, owned by Nancy Flowers, she was at 600 and Broadway.

The way this all started was very simple. I was at a show at a friends house one Sunday afternoon, and when we got through talking and introducing each other, the lady who gave the show said that she had things on the table to sell, Arts and Crafts. So this lady (Nancy Flowers), that owned the Gallery got up and started sorting through the folk art paintings that I had brought, and she purchased several, and then she told me that if I had anymore, to bring them by her store, the Gallery at 600 Broadway, and I did, and I sold through her for several years.

Home Studio Sales

After that I went out on my own and started selling them from my house, and through different Galleries in the United States.

The Kentucky Folk Art Center, in Morehead Kentucky

I took a year to send the paintings around to a lot of Galleries, and one Gallery, the Kentucky Folk Art Center, in Morehead Kentucky wrote back, that was the only one that answered, and after January 1997, I started working with the Kentucky Folk Art Center, and they gave me several shows, mostly joint exhibits, and one single exhibit called “Neighborhood Watch”, and since then, I’ve been selling and dealing with them.

Neighborhood Watch 1940’s

The Shows

I’ve participated in over forty exhibits, and to name a few, they were: The Paducah Women’s Club, in Paducah Kentucky, several times, I try to do that show every year. The Paducah Affordable Arts Show, which is in November every year, and as I’ve said, Gallery 600, the Kentucky Arts Council sponsored shows for me through Gallery 600.

In 1997 Morehead Kentucky also sponsored me in a single exhibit called “Neighborhood Watch Old Style Morehead Kentucky”.

I had a Joint book signing with editor Eugenia K. Potter of the Kentucky Women Book in 1998 at Gallery 600 Paducah Kentucky.

My Art traveled to Ecuador in 1999 in a joint exhibit sponsored by Kentucky Folk Art Center, at Morehead Kentucky.

One show I participated in was “Our Legacy Our Future”,  it was a part of a project with Kentucky Educational Television to highlight achievement of Women in Kentucky, sponsered by The Kentucky Commission On Women, that was in the year 2000.

I was a Local Legacies Participant celebrating the Library of Congress’ Bi-Centennial, 1800 through 2000, and I’ve won the Local Legacies Participant prize or award for Paducah that came through the State.

I have a painting on permanent exhibit in the Thomas Jefferson Room in the Library of Congress, it’s under Local Legacies.

I had the “From the Heart” exhibit June first through August.

I then had the W.C. Handy Festival in Henderson Kentucky.

I had one joint exhibit called “Gallantly Streaming”, May 25th through September at Western State University, in Bowling Green Kentucky.

I did a joint exhibit called “African American Folkart in Kentucky”, that was in 2001.

I won the blue ribbon best of show and a five hundred dollar prize at the Paducah Kentucky Arts and Music Festival, I think it was 2002.

I was guest speaker in a separate folk art exhibit for children, at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green.

The Beginning

When I first started painting, some people laughed at the paintings and called them different names, I called it Folk Art, and some people said it was “folksy”, and that a woman of my age shouldn’t be drawing and painting, because it made it look sorta like I was loosing my mind, of course that’s been eighteen years ago and I’m still walking around.

Popularity

In order to get more paint, paper, and art supplies, I sold the first paintings at two for seven dollars. The paintings ranged in size from eight and a half by eleven to pretty big sizes. Some were nine and a half by eleven, a standard sheet of paper.
I had some of the large paintings at maybe nine by eleven, or twelve by twelve, or twelve by eighteen even, for five dollars a piece.

So as time went on Mrs Nancy Flowers suggested that I go up on the prices, and I did just a little bit at a time. However, down through the years, paint supplies have gone up, paper has gone up, and then, I had to buy the foam backing to put in the back of the acid free plastic bags that I had to put them in. And of course we had to buy name tags, business cards, and business license, and a whole lot of extensive time, as we had to sign and date them all and get them packaged professionally.

The First Thousand Sold

I stopped counting sold paintings in Paducah when I painted a thousand. They were going for two for seven dollars to begin with, and finally they went up to, maybe some of them, ten and twelve dollars a piece, of course I wouldn’t get that, I would get about half that, minus my expenses, so I wasn’t really making any money.

Then I started winning awards, I won award after award, and show after show, until it put me in a different category. The prices then rose to one hundred dollars for a standard piece. Since that time the prices have continued to rise with the awards adding up, and also as the time passed each year the price rose slightly until the price arrived at $7.14 per square inch. At that time I stopped raising the prices and they stayed at $7.14 per square inch, and thats where they are now. That makes a 10×10 Original Painting sale for Seven Hundred Fourteen Dollars.

Arts And Crafts Beginnings

I have been painting for at least eighteen years and even before that I was into art but I didn’t call it that, I thought I was doing something to fill up time and to be doing something positive. I did Macrame, Crochet, I made dolls, I made quilts, I still make quilts, I use to make quilts for all the children and grandchildren.

Writing

What I really wanted to do was to be a writer, so I took a home study writing course, it’s been some time ago now, I forget how long ago,  it was called “Writing For Children”.

Poetry

I wrote several poems, I’ve got a couple of poetry books.

Children’s Stories

I’ve got children’s stories, and Children’s Books that I started to have printed.

Painting

When I first started painting, I would set the painting, then I would transfer it onto acid free art paper, then, I would tape the picture with markers, and I did that for quite a while, then Nancy Flowers, at the Gallery, suggested that I try Watercolor, so I tried watercolor for a while, then, I got into acrylic, and I found that I liked acrylic even better, and that’s what I use now, all acrylics.

Touring Days

Some of the shows have been out of town and along with the shows they expect you to speak, to say a little something about the art work, and for several years I went around to schools in Paducah and some of the Colleges also in different parts of the United States, and had work shops on the paintings. That lasted for quite a while until I got where I didn’t have transportation, as I’ve said my second husband died in 2007, and since then, I have not been able to get out and do like I used to, because he was my transportation.

Memory Paintings

Mainly I do memory painting. Some would look at the paintings and would tell me, that looks like Mrs so-and-so, or Mr so-and-so. I don’t do that intentionally, I just draw, and whatever comes out, it happens  that way. And sometimes I can look though that window, and I really see this person that I used to know in my childhood. Then I paint them.

Eight of August

Popular Types of Paintings

I have done paintings that other people suggested that I do for them. But mainly the paintings that sell the best are the ones that people come and say that looks like my Aunt or my Uncle. Sometimes there’s something from the painting that reminds them of their childhood. It’s as if the paintings held some shared childhood experiences. Then the thing that they recognize doesn’t have to be in a certain locality, it could be a certain era when people did the same things, so that they relate to the painting.

Series of Paintings

I do mostly memory paintings, and so when I do one memory, I sometimes get hung up on it, then I’ll do a whole series or sometimes two or three or four or five series, for instance, “The Quilters”.

The Quilters

When I was a child growing up, for many years, I used to see people quilting, so, I do the quilting ladies, families, sometimes a mother and father or child, sometimes it’s just women around the table, and I call them “My Old Kentucky Home Quilters”.

I like to try different things, I think it was Women’s Month in March, when the lady that had the Gallery in Frankfort suggested that I do something about Women, and I came up with my “Old Kentucky Home Quilters” and that’s the first time I did those.

Creek Fishing

Lap Quilting

Sometimes it’s just a single woman doing the Lap Quilting, I used to quilt the lap quilt for the grandchildren mostly. You have a big hoop that fits comfortably in your lap, and you can just hold it while you’re watching TV or whatever, and you can be quilting.

Dancing

Then I do people dancing, I do people doing like, The Bop, The Twist, and Slow Dancing, and I do those because I guess those are Memory Paintings.

Slow Dancing

Angels

The Angels that I paint, mostly goes back to the gift. The same action was at work with the Angels, that was at work when I did that first “Painting Of The Church”.

I feel like It’s a gift, I feel that heavenly things play into everyday life, just as things that go on down here play into heavenly life, we’re just in a different realm.

Concerning the Angels that I did, I do remember the Hebrew Angels. Be careful to entertain strangers, for in doing so, we entertain Angels unaware. I do quite a bit of Hebrews Angels because that is in the book Hebrews.

The Hebrew Angels came from a lady that remembered that I did Angels, and she suggested that I make some, because you can make them big or small, and she thought that they would sell. I sold a few but with the downturn in the economy people were not buying too much of anything. But hopefully now that things are looking up, they will start back buying art.

And then I do other Messenger Angels also.

Sometimes I do Angels with different Musical Instruments.

Heres an Image of an Angel with a Candle

Heres an Image of an Angel with a fine object in his hand

In conclusion, you can view a sampling of the Folk Art at Edmonds-Gallery.com.

A lady of our elite society said, “Everybody Wants One Dance,” Thank You.

JoAnn Dance.

Seriously Humble starts the Prayer Closet Images for your personal Prayer Closet.

Collect all 28 for Your Personal Prayer Closet Experience.

There were 36 Appearances in the Paducah Sun shown below:

19 Oct 1973,

11 Oct 1974,

17 Sept 1976,

13 May 1983,

08 Jun 1984,

11 Jun 1995, 25 Jun 1995, 11 Dec 1995,

10 Jan 1996,

12 Jan 1997,

22 Feb 1998, 26 Feb 1998, 27 Feb 1998,

25 Jul 1999, 06 Sept 1999,

06 Feb 2000, 10 Feb 2000, 13 Feb 2000, 20 Feb 2000,

24 Feb 2001, 05 Mar 2001, 08 Mar 2001, 23 Apr 2001,

25 Apr 2004,

02 Oct 2005, 22 Oct 2005,

07 Sept 2006,

16 Feb 2007,

25 Jun 2009,

10 Jan 2013, 05 Feb 2013, 14 Feb 2013,

2020 Exhibition, Joan Dance (1),

Newspaper Articles Before Beginning Painting

19 Oct 1973, Chicken Dinner Sale at Church

11 Oct 1974, Food Item Sale Tom Thumb Wedding

17 Sept 1976, Church Women Food Sale

13 May 1983 Cookbooks published by church.

08 Jun 1984, “The Way Things Are” The Book,

Painted First Church August 1994

11 Jun 1995, Advertisement for Single Exhibit at Gallery 600

25 Jun 1995, Gallery 600 Single Exhibit

11 Dec 1995, Gallery 600 Christmas  Advertisment mentions Joan Dance

10 Jan 1996, Katrine Robinson mentions Joan Dance in Paducah Sun Article as a mentor

12 Jan 1997, “The Paintings of Joan Dance” Morehead Kentucky exhibit

22 Feb 1998, Gallery 600 Exhibit “Folk Art”

26 Feb 1998, Book Signing with Eugenia K Potter Featuring 95 Kentucky Women

27 Feb 1998, Featured in Eugenia K Potter’s Book Kentucky Women

25 Jul 1999, Ohio Valley Art League, Three Artists featured, Willie Roscoe Juanita Gibson-Yeager and Joan Dance

06 Sept 1999, Tennis Court Tilghman Art Gala Fundraiser

06 Feb 2000,  Co-Exhibit and Talk with Kentucky Egg Tempera Artist Gary Akers

10 Feb 2000, Show and Speak at Yeiser

13 Feb 2000, Featured Artist at Yeiser February

20 Feb 2000, Gained Acclaim shown with Ellis Wilson Article

24 Feb 2001, Mayfield art Guild Exhibit Nancy Flowers Sponsored Gallery 600

05 Mar 2001, Local Female Artist Makes History Women’s Club of Paducah

08 Mar 2001, Exhibit Gallery 600

23 Apr 2001,  Gallery 600 Exhibit

25 Apr 2004, 69th Women’s Club Art Show “Drawn to The Arts” Watercolor 3rd place

02 Oct 2005, Kentucky Minority Economic Development Association- Outstanding Folk Artist of the Year

22 Oct 2005, Advertisement for Sale of Art at Katrine Robinson and Gallery 600

07 Sept 2006, “Love That Art” Benefit Over 90 Artists for Chad Gamble and Yeiser Arts Center Jane Gamble

16 Feb 2007,  Black History at Rosary Chapel Art display

25 Jun 2009, Icehouse Mayfield “Eye See What the Heart Knows” Narrative Paintings

10 Jan 2013, Yeiser permanent collection show, of Local artists

05 Feb 2013, Gale Kaler Mayor Art Club selection

14 Feb 2013, Mayors Art Club Excellent Picture

Wine and Music Festival Belnap Illinois

Trigg County Cadiz show Boots Randolph

2020 Exhibition, “Once Upon a Summers Time”

2023 Planned to show at Metropolitan Hotel, February Water damage prevented the scheduling

Per communications with Betty Dobson: After the damage was repaired, then a show could be scheduled to be shown.

Called home  April 11th. Seriously Humble starts the Prayer Closet Images for your personal Prayer Closet.

Collect all 28 for Your Personal Prayer Closet Experience. The first image Turtle Shell Woman is available.

Click on the Turtle Shell Woman for the link to the store where you may purchase the first image in the “Prayer Closet Images” Collection, the “Sayings of Jesus,” that causes us to survive the storms of life.