Joy Yamusangie

Joy Yamusangie is an artist who knows how to harness the essentials. Their artwork that we see today has evolved from a practice in which they would stare into a mirror and draw lines that outlined their likeness. Who else is there to pull from, if not first starting with your own reflection? Realizing that their first works were similarly created from basic sheets of paper, one of the first exhibitions that really cleaved to Yamusangie's soul was Henri Matisse's paper cut-outs. Where else is there to begin in art, if not from the most accessible components? The pieces often feature bold applications of color, as they find themselves time and time again coming back to hues of red, blue and yellow. How else to bring one's work alive, if not from pulling from the foundational colors of everything we see? Yamusangie's artistry is a rediscovery of the fundamentals. Evidence that to make beautiful art, all you really need is to look around.
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Shaquille Heath: As someone who has a name that comes with a lot of expectations, do you feel any pressure to show up a certain way?
Joy Yamusangie: Outside of art, in my day to day life... yes! Haha. I think when you say your name is "Joy," the responses that I usually get are the same. So if I have my normal face, which is neutral, people will say, "Oh, how come you're not smiling?" I get many of those kinds of comments.
My name also always comes with baggage and a conversation, so I get that. How do you fight against it? Is that a battle with yourself where you have to say, "No! I'm not showing up with 'joy' today. I'm showing up with whatever I want!"
I think I've just heard it so many times that it makes me laugh. It doesn't bother me too much. I like having a name with meaning in this way, even though it's not how my mother intended it to be. She actually just named me after someone in a TV show she liked. It has nothing to do with the feeling, haha. But I like that it means something else to other people. I like what it means for my mum. I've got so many different nicknames! So it's one of my many nicknames.
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With a name that is expressive, do you feel that you are more tapped into feelings? I personally sense, when I look at your artwork, that it's very clear what your subjects are feeling.
Oh, you know what? I've never thought about it that way! That's a really nice way to see it. It hasn't been something that I've thought about in the past. I'd like to think so after you say that now. But actually, maybe it has had an influence on it. Or maybe how other people perceive my work, knowing that it's made by someone called Joy, they might see it in a certain way.
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I'm going into your subconscious! My partner is a behavioral analyst, so I'm very interested in what influences our behaviors. Your background as an artist started with illustration. I'm wondering if you remember one of the first things that you made that you were really stoked about.
That's really cool! Yeah, it goes way, way, way back to my childhood. I made a drawing of a circus and I gave it to my mum. She actually still has the drawing. I mean, it's not something that looks like what I make now. But I remember being like, I love drawing. I really love drawing. I used to make comics for my siblings, and I used to make animations. I was always trying to make stuff. When I was young, I was really encouraged with my art and always kind of felt proud of whatever I was making, even though it's not necessarily work that I would put out there now.
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Hearing you say you made comics, I feel like illustrators are usually fans of cartoons. Did you watch a lot of cartoons growing up? And did any of those influence your practice?
I loved watching cartoons. I watched everything on Cartoon Network and everything on Nickelodeon. I loved the Powerpuff Girls! I loved Dexter's Laboratory. I originally thought that I was going to take the path of animation. I thought that's the kind of thing that I want to be able to do because I used to make school drawings and then trace over them. And anything can happen, which I like! I like drawing from the conversations that I have with friends and close ones. Or memories I have that I want to remember. But then, if I have dreams that maybe kind of stick out to me, I will make pieces off of them.
I had an exhibition a few years ago that was just based on dreams. I actually felt like it was quite, I want to say, exposing, you know? I'm sure someone like your partner would be able to read into the deeper meanings of these dreams. But I guess being an artist is playing with your whole life and sharing it anyway.
Are you able to recall your dreams easily, or do you have to wake up and write them down immediately?
I don't write them down because I'm a bit lazy, but I'll do a voice memo. When you listen to them back... I just cringe so much, haha! Because it doesn't make sense. And then I just take long pauses... It's actually quite funny. Yeah, I have to do this almost instantly. But then I have some dreams that really stick with me. I think the ones that are really weird in terms of the visuals-I actually remember even going into the day.
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What about the people in your work?
Most of them are actually me, or versions of myself. Only in the last couple of years have I included the people who are around me. And I think that is because of the way that I got into drawing. I felt confident drawing from these exercises that I used to do in college, where I would get a mirror and then draw line drawings of myself. So I spent a...