Praying Mantis, 2024

Acrylic paint and paint markers on canvas

20 x 16 x 1/2 inches, framed

Fair Market Value: $450

Starting Bid: $315

Buy It Now: $675

JOY COTTON is a mixed-media artist based in Omaha, Nebraska. Cotton uses a combination of pencil, acrylic, watercolor, and oil to create paintings and murals. These works contain multiple layers of abstract and realistic forms through fashion and collage. In recent years, she has worked on projects with the Omaha Summer Arts Festival Cube Project, Benson First Fridays, Midtown Crossing Sunny Chair project, and Amplify Arts Alternate Currents Working Group 2022-2023/2024. Followed by published work in Next Soulmate Mag Issue 1 (New York, New York), The Gardyloo (Omaha, Nebraska), and American Civil Liberties Union Nebraska. She received her associate degree in general arts at Metropolitan Community College, and a BA in general studies from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Cotton's process of painting and drawing is all based on curiosity and experimentation. She approaches her work through three main elements: color, balance, and form. Similar to a three-way intersection, in her creative process she must arrive at a stop and observe no matter where she goes. What she sees impacts not only her, but also others in passing. When creating pieces, Cotton considers how nothing can take form into something. Her creations are active in the sense they are stories told through the views of imagination. The most important question she asks herself while observing a blank canvas is how does she make something she can only see in her mind, and what will others feel when it takes physical form?