Juju Ishmael
Juju Ishmael’s practice is closely tied to interior states and lived experience. Anxiety, spiritual searching, sobriety, motherhood, and extended periods away from painting have all shaped the direction of her work. Even during times when she stepped away from two-dimensional art, her creative impulse remained active through poetry, performance, and experimental theater, resurfacing in different forms until she returned to painting.
When she resumed painting, her work responded directly to her surroundings. Living in the Pacific Northwest introduced a palette shaped by dense greens and saturated environments, while the emotional realities of raising children altered the way figures appeared on the canvas. Earlier portraits of adolescents gradually shifted into bodies dissolving into water as swimming became part of her daily life. Over time, these transformations gave way to broader explorations of impermanence, change, and endurance.
Meditation plays a central role in this phase of Ishmael’s practice. Her work reflects an engagement with the idea that all things arise and pass away, a principle she experiences as both spiritual and bodily. This understanding informs the way figures dissolve, re-form, and interact with their environments, emphasizing transition rather than fixed identity.
Her current narrative paintings take on a more overtly critical tone, examining the social myths inherited through Western histories. Ishmael is particularly interested in how authoritarian movements have shaped and distorted stories about origin, power, and progress, often erasing the cultures that contributed to those narratives. She connects these inherited myths to contemporary ecological and cultural crises, treating them as forces that continue to shape collective behavior.
Alongside critique, her work looks toward regeneration. Ishmael draws inspiration from local forests, waters, and nonhuman life, focusing on relationships between people and the landscapes they inhabit. She is interested in how new stories might emerge from adaptation, interdependence, and stewardship, rather than domination or control.
Across her evolving practice, Ishmael returns repeatedly to transformation. Her paintings invite sustained attention, encouraging viewers to question familiar narratives and consider what can grow from their fractures. While the forms and subjects of her work continue to change, its through-line remains a commitment to presence and the possibility of light within ongoing change.
