The Full Circle Nine Gallery (FC9) will feature Joy Hernandez in “Bright Lights and Star Stuff” as part of the First Friday art tour at the Full Circle Nine Gallery (FC9), 6-9pm on Friday, September 6th. Admission and parking are free.
Hernandez, also the president and founder of FC9, will showcase new work touching on a variety of subjects, painted in her usual aerosol and acrylic paint. Topics range from brand-new Bean the Astronaut work (the “Star-Stuff’ a reference to the Carl Sagan quote), to pop culture figures such as Space Ghost and the Philadelphia Flyers’ mascot Gritty. The “Bright Lights” refers to “neon” paintings Hernandez has begun to explore.
“I am painting linework on these, which is a lot more attention-intensive for me, practicing patience,” Hernandez said. “When all the layers are stacked up it will look like it glows on the canvas.”
About Joy Hernandez
Joy Hernandez is a native of Kewanee, Illinois. She split her time between Kewanee and Chicago, eventually studying animation in the city before realizing she has too short of an attention span for that line of work. Hernandez transferred to the University of Indianapolis to study Communication and become a television news photojournalist and video editor, a path that fits nicely within her attention span.
“Video editing, I feel, is part of my artwork because it’s a creative endeavor,” Hernandez said. “It’s like painting with light and sound.” Hernandez has worked in TV news for 20 years, in addition to her Indianapolis visual art career.
Her time in Chicago, by her own admission, left her feeling burned out on art, a soul-shaking moment for any artist. But it’s not a problem that remains today.
“Lately I’ve had a lot of projects to keep up with and I was worried I’d be burned out, but that hasn’t happened. I realized over the summer that I haven’t wanted to freak out and run away, but instead I’ve met every challenge and deadline. That’s a really good feeling, like a fear conquered.”
Joy Hernandez was the gallery manager at the Art Bank gallery on Mass Ave for five years before founding FC9 in 2016. She was the last president of IDADA, the Indianapolis Downtown Artists and Dealers Association (the founding organization of First Friday in Indy), and is involved with FLAVA Fresh, Indy Latina Artists, and Arte Mexicano en Indianapolis. The latter organization recently sent Hernandez back to the Chicago area to participate in the Olmec Trial project, representing Indianapolis and her family’s Mexican-American story painted onto a fiberglass reproduction of the ancient stone heads of Mexico.
Hernandez often paints the adventures of Bean the Astronaut in murals around Indy as well as the state (and, recently, Down Under in Mount Barker, Western Australia). Bean allows viewers to live vicariously, often undertaking activities the artist or viewers may not be able to safely do themselves, such as skateboarding, breaking, or roller skating. Other murals in the area cover a wide variety of subjects, including several gathered in the corridors of the Circle City Industrial Complex.
About the Full Circle Nine Gallery
The Full Circle Nine Gallery operates as an artist cooperative gallery, with each of the member artists and the board dividing gallery duties and artists roles. The artists will work together to help each other advance in skill and practice, as well as to bring success to the gallery. With over two dozen artists occupying a large, three-room space of the more factory-reminiscent portion of the Circle City Industrial Complex, Full Circle Nine offers a wide variety of art forms, media, and approaches.
The gallery has regular hours: 12-4pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Full Circle Nine Gallery is located at 1125 Brookside Ave., Indianapolis, IN, 46202, in the South Studios section of the Circle City Industrial Complex. For more information, or for artists interested in joining the Full Circle Nine, please visit www.fullcirclenine.com