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Artist's Biography Janna Willoughby |
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Born on Mother's Day, 22 years ago, I grew up mainly with my mother and my older brother. Divorce and peculiar happenstance led me to have a biological father and a legal father, both of whom are currently remarried and have other children. I have seven brothers and sisters but I am the only child between my birth mother and father. I created an artist's book called These Roots Go Deeper Than the Birth's Surface about my experiences being part of a nuclear family reaction. Here is an excerpt of the text: "I am scaling the center line, this middle link that binds with a love far stronger than what has never held my parents together." I truly believe that my unconventional family structure is what has led me to be so independent and multi-faceted, because I spent a lot of time in between three different families with three different sets of rules, and I had to learn to adapt quickly to changes in my life; to accept what came my way. I have been writing poetry since I was five years old and was first published in Earth's Daughters (a nationally distributed women's publication) when I was just 16 years old. I graduated from Hutch Tech high school in 2000 with a Regents BioChemical Technology degree. From there, I applied for and received a creative writing scholarship from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC. I have been attending Warren Wilson for four years and will graduate in May with a BA in Integrative Studies: Entrepreneurial Creative Business Arts; a major that I designed to fit my goals in life. I have been very artistic since I was a little tiny girl, but since I attended a technical high school that didn't offer any creative arts classes, I had become distanced from my love for creativity. When I arrived at college I was flooded with a tremendous creative energy and I knew that I needed to "make stuff" although I wasn't sure what. |
I proceeded to take several studio art classes including printmaking, papermaking and bookforms. I also took several music classes to learn to play the guitar and the piano. Over the past four years I have created and displayed artworks ranging from drawings and paintings, to handmade paper and books, to woodcut prints and monoprints, and photography. I have also written countless poems and have begun work on an autobiographical book of poems called Skin and Stories Stretch to Cover Bones and These Beliefs: Autobiography of a Middleman.
In addition to writing poems and making art, I have also branched out into several different musical forms including folk guitar and political hip-hop rhyming. I often perform "raps" at open mic nights and poetry slams and this is one of my favorite ways to reach out to people. I have created reachforthestars papercraft miracles as a way to make a living doing what I love; creating unique works of art. I have known for a long time that being a starving artist is typical and being a profitable artist is not, and creating my business venture while I am still in college lets me get a head start into the realm of the profitable artist. So far everything in my life has worked out how it should; like puzzle pieces falling into place. I hope to inspire people from all walks of life, especially women. In today's society there is a lot of pressure on women to be strong and assertive yet the media continues to broadcast the message that being aesthetically pleasing is "the way to the top!" I strive to help people see the beauty that a human soul possesses, no matter what it's dress size its body is. Always remember that everything is a miracle! Especially life. |
