Often, we’re inclined to admire art based on faraway lands or even fantasy worlds. But Las Vegas-based painter Joy Goldstein’s latest show at Enterprise Library, Southwest Spirit, reminds us how magnificent our own backyard is.
The collection on exhibition through October 2 includes 26 pieces. It depicts scenes like the Narrows at Zion or the Colorado River at Buckskin Mountain State Park in Arizona. And, of course, dreamy desert views based on Red Rock Canyon are painted in burnt siennas and umbers with pops of luscious greens. The collection is a direct passage to a peaceful state of mind.
“Peace Within”
Each painting translates the love that Goldstein has for the desert. But originally, the local artist had a hard time loving it. It was during the dog days of summer that a 10-year-old Goldstein made the move with her family from Panorama City, California to Las Vegas.
“When I first moved here it was July. It was hot and all I saw was brown and dry. There were no trees,” she says. “That’s what I remember experiencing.”
Eventually, she came to enjoy and appreciate the desert and even became an avid hiker. In the wake of the pandemic, she packed her family into a travel trailer and toured the Southwest landscape, including stops in California, Utah, Arizona and Nevada. It was one way for them to stay safe and get out of the house, she explains.
Goldstein never set out to create a whole collection of work based on the getaway, but upon returning home thetrip photos inspired her to paint. In the long run, that process helped her “fall in love with painting again.”
The longtime artist has been painting since childhood but says that she began to take it seriously during her college years. She has a bachelor of fine arts degree from UNLV as well as certifications in graphic design from CSN. In recent years, Goldstein has kept busy running a successful Etsy account where she accepts commissions for portraits (etsy.com/shop/PaintUPortraits).
“I love doing commissions and portraits … I like the challenge. I like interacting with clients and forming something together that we are both satisfied with,” she says. “But when it comes to my personal stuff, I’m more experimental—it’s more freeing.”
Artist Joy Goldstein
Instead of copying the photo references exactly—as she does when painting commissioned work—she allowed herself to digress and let the paintings take form throughout the process. Goldstein says she played with different materials, techniques and textures, like utilizing different brush strokes and paint splatter, which she says she really enjoyed.
“I tried to express the beauty that I see out there and the serenity as well as my inner experience,” Goldstein says. “I hope folks see [that] and their own surroundings in a different way.”
JOY GOLDSTEIN: SOUTHWEST SPIRIT Through October 2;. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Friday-Sunday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Enterprise Library, 702-507-3760.
Click HERE to subscribe for free to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly! Stay up to date with the latest on Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more, sent directly to your inbox!
