About the Lab

josie’sARTLAB started in 2014 when I first taught a guided painting event for a fundraiser at my children’s school. Every time we had one of these events, folks would clammer for more. I had been teaching painting and drawing at SWOCC since 2009 but this was different. This was soooo much fun. People not only enjoyed the end result but the PROCESS (well, once they got used to the idea that sometimes things look worse before they look better). And I noticed how much I enjoyed helping people tap into a creativity that sometimes surprised them. I loved seeing how, even with the exact same supplies and instructions, each painting was unique. I opened my location at 1964 Sherman Ave in January 2017, even though I was still teaching at SWOCC, the Director of Art Education at the Coos Art Museum and had three children at home. As I gained my footing and confidence, I shed the other jobs and began expanding my curriculum to other types of classes: beginning painting classes, figure drawing sessions, art journaling, kids classes and anything else that caught my interest. In March of 2020, I was ready to see what would happen if I focused all my energies onto the LAB. Of course, we all know the hitch that was thrown in that get-a-long. Well that hitch gave me the opportunity to explore avenues I hadn’t considered: online classes, Patreon, YouTube and exploring my own work more fully. It opened up a new world of possibilities.

ABOUT Josie

I am a little kooky, a LOT loud and I love almost everything—most of all laughing and anything fun. I work from home, I work at the lab, I have fluctuating hours depending on class schedule so, like my artwork, I am all over the place. Working in any one medium, subject matter or style too exclusively starts to feel too predictable. I prefer never quite knowing what’s going to happen and having the flexibility to follow where that takes me.