10 Questions with M.J. Hinson

Mary Joan, a lifelong artist, cultivated her passion for oils from an early age, expanding her studies across the United States, Europe, and the Far East. Transitioning from her role as a Professor of Fine Arts and Humanities at Florida State College at Jacksonville, she earned her PhD in 2005, subsequently dedicating herself to teaching and exhibiting across the eastern United States. In 2020, Mary Joan redirected her focus to exclusive artistic pursuits, earning accolades such as the Botticelli Award for Contemporary Painting and the 2022 Best Public Art award for her Florida Shorebirds mural. Renowned for large-scale murals and acclaimed studio work, she has garnered prestigious honors, including the Word Revolt Planetary Award and the Teravarna Gallery International Abstraction Talent Award. Committed to creating compositionally exquisite pieces with a technically sound approach, Mary Joan eagerly anticipates showcasing her work in galleries worldwide.

www.brushandoil.com | @mjhinsonart

ARTIST STATEMENT

Our inner landscape is carpeted with emotions, which gives understanding and a complexion to our daily existence. Science remains unsure of what emotions are, believing that they may be momentary, unconscious reactions to environmental stimuli. In short, they could be an innate survival tactic that universally provides positive or negative clues that influence decision-making. Ecstasy, surprise, and admiration positively denote psychological aggrandizement; however, grief, sadness, and disgust negatively affect us, creating uneasiness and perhaps a warning. Emotions are an evolutionary stratagem that promotes chances of survival. Impassioned Emotions bring color and movement to our positive and negative feelings, allowing the viewer the freedom to have their own emotional response to each piece.

INTERVIEW

First of all, let's start with your background. What influenced your passion for oils, and what inspired you to follow a career as an artist?

I took painting lessons as a small child, developing a love of oils and the unique pigments they offered. My parents encouraged my every artistic pursuit, providing me with painting lessons, art camps, and all the supplies I could use, even allowing me to turn my bedroom into a makeshift art studio, which gave our house the wonderful smell of oil paints! As I grew up, I continued my studies into adulthood in the United States, Europe, and the Far East, immersing myself in the cultures and the stimulation they provided, finding the various cultures both fascinating and inspiring.

As both a Professor of Fine Arts and Humanities and an accomplished artist, how do you balance your roles in academia and in creating your own art?

Balancing a role in academia with producing art is a shell game of multitasking. Professor by day and working artist by night meant intertwining roles and a constant persistence to excel at two endeavors. Students received the benefit of having a working artist as an instructor, which allowed them to step in and take part in a world of their goal; they could partake in both the struggles and accolades of the realm of their dreams.

Pensiveness, Mixed Media and Oil on Canvas, 70x48 in, 2024 © M.J. Hinson

Your accolades include the Botticelli Award for Contemporary Painting and the Best Public Art award for your Florida Shorebirds mural. What did you learn from these experiences?

Excelling at any endeavor takes perseverance and a constant, no-excuse persistence. Winning two very different awards was an effort in the "just do it" attitude. I have certainly failed more than finding victory and been rejected more than finding success, yet my Aries attitude keeps putting me out there. It truly takes a very thick skin to be an artist and an unparalleled sense of self-assuredness. Success will come. It takes a great deal of persistence and drive without concern for defeat. Keep at it! Success is in the future!

Let's now talk about your work. Can you discuss the creative process behind the "Impassioned Emotions" series and how you translate abstract emotions into visual art?

A friend once said, "I would like to live in your mind for an hour!" Impassioned Emotions was born of a design session with one of my private students. We were working on a simple conceptual project where I gave him a feeling and asked him to illustrate that feeling using simple lines. He did not quite get my instructions, so I asked him to give me an emotion, and upon his request, I illustrated "grief". We parlayed back and forth with specific feelings, and a very loud bell went off in my head! After returning home that same evening, I researched emotions and found a diagram designed by a psychologist named Robert Plutchik, which assigned a color to each emotion. That was just the inspiration that I needed, and I stayed up all night sketching. By the early hours of the morning, I had illustrated 24 emotions!

How do you approach capturing and conveying emotions, particularly in this series?

My work reflects a world that exists deep in cognitive awareness. Looking at nature, I see the organic interaction of color, shape, and form. This body of work is started without a preconceived notion of color or design, and natural rhythms are allowed to take over. The strokes and hues become defined as deconstruction turns into form. Contemplation gives birth to concrete images, and the unification of chaos is a matter of course. Formalist attitudes give way to images of our ever-changing environment through visions reflecting its ebbs and flows. In my mind, art should be beautiful, bring happiness, and cherish memories of good times with positivity and love. To me, it is no more complicated. It is without judgment or malice toward ANYTHING or ANYONE. I seek the brightest, purest colors that I can find; multiple tubes of magenta, scarlet lake, cobalt turquoise, and French ultramarine are included in a palette that applauds the joy of life, nature, and love!

Vigilence, Mixed Media and Oil on Canvas, 70x48 in, 2024 © M.J. Hinson

Are there any recurring themes or concepts you often explore in your artwork, aside from emotions, and what draws you to these themes?

I love color and the actual process of applying paint to a canvas, wall, or person, whatever presents itself! I want my art to bring joy and contemplation. Technique is also critical, and how an artist performs a task is often imperative to the success or failure of a work. A piece may fail strictly because the technique was faulty. Close attention is made that every step, every specific step, is executed with only the best technique. The technical aspect of art is often underrated and not acknowledged by patrons and critics alike, but to the quintessential professional artist, it is second only to craftsmanship, which is by far the most important aspect of creating a work that will stand the test of time. The integrity of the craftsmanship can never go unnoticed or unacknowledged as it goes to the longevity and respectability of the work. In a painting, for instance, the wood of the stretchers is straight and clean from splinters, the canvas is of appropriate weight and tooth, the canvas is assembled, accurately measured, squared, or shaped, and the surface is well gessoed and prepared by sanding and/or color priming, the under-drawing, as applicable, is accurate using an appropriate medium, the pigments are the purest and most colorfast available, the application is clean, noting attention to detail, and the final presentation is professionally complete.

You also work on large-scale murals. How does your approach to creating murals differ from your approach to studio work, and do you find one more challenging than the other?

I believe that my "small" studio work and large murals are related. A quality composition is imperative, and the same is true regardless of size. I utilize the rule of thirds in all my work, as well as the Fibonacci concept. Joining these tried-and-true concepts allows my work to bring the viewer a feeling of peace. Symmetrical compositions are far too predictable for my taste and diagonal movement rules. I am studying for a master's and employ a very critical eye in all my artistic pursuits, whether that be my work or the work of others. Coming from a world of Academia, my eye is trained to analyze every part for perfection, creativity, and originality, with a base necessity for sound technique.

Beyond your artistic endeavors, are there any other passions or interests that inspire you or influence your creative process?

The world influences me! The spring flowers at the nursery, the rusted industrial structures peppering the city, abandoned buildings, long lost to time, the lines in nature as dictated by the energy of the sun, and the gull's cry as he searches for his next meal; all of this inspires me! I watch athletes and the movement of their muscle structure as they perform; I see beauty in the ordinary stroll of an elderly couple, the sounds of a world-class bassoonist, and the grace of a prowling cat or a flying bird. Creatives see the world as inspiration; I am a creative.

As an artist, how do you see your work evolving in the future, and are there any new techniques or mediums you're interested in exploring?

I am continually adapting, and changing as the earth undulates with the ebbs and flows brought by an ever-changing world. I am inspired by glass and yearn to cast glass pieces, hunger to study Georges Rouault and dive into encaustics, and thirst to copy DaVinci's 24/26 foot horse!

Lastly, speaking of the future, can you share any insights into your upcoming projects or series that you're currently working on?

My current inclinations change with every day, every breath, every spoken word, but I would love to do some single or double-story faces -- faces that tell a story, the very old, the homeless, the adventurer, the athlete. My list is truly endless, but they must all tell a story, and I want to include remnants of that story in the mural. My studio aspirations now lean toward the goddesses and their attributes. I can see Artemis, surrounded by animals, standing fiercely, bowing in hand, with the determination of her father Zeus and the modesty of her mother Leto. I will throw these concepts out to the universe, and with my natural persistence, they will both come to fruition!

Artist’s Talk

Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.

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