Artist Bio Joan Hanley is an American painter working and living between the US and Ireland. She was born in working class New York; the daughter and granddaughter of firefighters . She studied at Hartford Art School, the School of Visual Arts NY and has a MFA from Vermont College. Her main studio is at the foot of Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire but to be close to family in Ireland, she also works in Kerry. She has taught art and meditation in Mexico, China, Taiwan and England as well as at several colleges in New England. She has exhibited at the Fitchburg Art Museum, MA, Brattleboro Museum, VT, the Mariposa Museum, NH, the University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMass, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Attleboro Museum, MA Artist Statement My paintings are meditations on the people and places around me. They portray family, plants, pets, electronics and also presences present in memory or psyche. They are moments in places I know well, my home and favorite restaurants, parks and coffee shops. Alice Neel, who is known for her brilliant, compassionate figure paintings, juried me into my first exhibition. She worked from life and memory. Like her, I regularly draw my family and friends but my memory lives mostly in my cell phone. My canvases begin from a combination of cell phone photos and drawings roughly edited together on my computer. Once a painting is begun its takes on a life of it’s own. Things change size and color, and characters arrive or disappear. The materials have their own accidents which play important roles. Whenever possible I stay in touch with the subjects in the paintings. They contribute dreams and ideas throughout the process. The paintings tell me things, they take me places and leave me with new ideas and questions. I hope they will do that for anyone who spends time with them. When people ask me what my paintings mean, I have ideas but I prefer to hear what they see. I want my paintings to invite imagination. I hope they show us that every moment is worth living deeply. EDUCATION Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art 2001 Vermont College, Norwich University Master of Arts in Creative Arts Therapies 1988 Lesley College, Cambridge, MA Bachelor of Fine Arts 1976 Hartford Art School, University of Hartford SELECTED EXHIBITIONS Intimate Paradox / Solo Exhibition Blue Raven Gallery, Rockland ME 2024 Vegetative Soul/ Solo Exhibition AVA Gallery, Lebanon, NH 2024 Reflecting Ecologies- Artists in Nature Gallery 51, North Adams, MA 2023 Screens & Shadows- New Work by Joan Hanley and Humberto Ramirez Conant Gallery, Groton, MA 2023 What’s Going On? Paintings by Joan Hanley Endicott College, Beverly MA, 2022 86th Regional Exhibition of Art & Craft Fitchburg Art Museum, 2022 Occupy the Moment Bridgeport Art Center Gallery, Chicago, IL:, 2022 Into the Forest, Rochester Museum of Art, Rochester, NH 2021 Monadnock Art Tour, Peterborough Historical Society, 2019 Wherever You are is the Center of the World Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro Vermont, 2011 In The Public Sphere, U Mass Gallery 2008 Hari Amrit In Memoriam Mariposa Museum, Peterborough, NH 2004 Before After Attleboro Museum, Attleboro,MA. 2002. September 11th Response Show Pelham Art Center, Pelham, NY. 2002 Artists Respond Concord Free Library Gallery, Concord, MA . 2001. Disposable Art Liberty Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. 2001. Office Hours Broad stone Studio Gallery, Dublin, Ireland 2000. Joan Hanley Paintings New York Open Center Gallery. NY, NY 1999. Original Self - Recent Paintings Gallery Hall, Kansas City, MO.1999 Original Self Phoenix Public Library Artist Book Gallery, Phoenix, AZ 1999. PUBLIC INSTALLATIONS Meandering, Lunder Center, the Clark Art Institute ,2023 Mud Mural for Peace, Keene, New Hampshire 2013 Mud Mural, Main Street, Wilton, New Hampshire 2008 The Puzzle Piece, Rivier College, Nashua, New Hampshire. 2002 Pedestrian Wonders, Montpellier, Vermont. 2002 Axis Mundi. Wilton Falls Mill River park, Wilton, New Hampshire. 2002 The Flag Project. State Legislature, Concord, New Hampshire. 2001 Office Hours. Immigration Office, Garda, Dublin, Ireland.2001 PUBLICATIONS What’s Going On - Painting by Joan Hanley Catalog, October 2022 Art and Yoga: Kundalini Awakening in Daily Life New Leaf Publishing June 2011 Images of Earth & Spirit Green Books,2003 England pp.70-73. Survey of recent works. CIRCA - Irish and international contemporary visual culture. Summer 2001, pg. 7. Review of Office Hours Installation Resurgence. No. 198 January/ February 2000, p.p. 34-36. Survey of recent works. Original Self. 2000 Harper Collins, NY, NY. Contains 50 woodcuts & monoprint LECTURES, CURATING & TEACHING Art & Yoga Mentorship, Founder and Director Online with live meetings in New England, Santa Fe and Ireland, 2017- 25 MassArt, Artist Mentor Boston, MA, 2023 Lesley University MFA, Artist Mentor Cambridge, MA, 2022 Jaffrey Civic Center Curator: Go Figure Jaffrey, NH 2022 Sharon Arts Center, Curator: Humberto Ramirez Peterborough, NH 2010 Vermont College MFA, Artist teacher Montpellier VT 2008 Maine College of Art, Artist teacher Portland ME 2005-6 Marlboro College, Visiting Professor Contemporary Art History Marlboro, VT 2004-10-01 Hofstra University, New Genre Public Art (Keynote, Arts & Psychology Conference) Queens, NY. 3/2004 American Art Therapy Association Annual Conference,New Genre Public Art Washington, DC. 11/2002 One Earth Conference, Community Collaborative Art Practices Rinebeck, NY 9/2002 Museum of Fine Arts On Practice. Boston, MA. 4/2000 Schumacher College, Art , Environment and Eros. Devon, England. 7/2000,2003,2005 and 2000