Repurposed Art from a Repurposed Life: An Exhibition by Mitzie Jokich

Movement is essential in my visual storytelling. Ever-changing, physical limitations leads me to explore other methods & materials to create my art. As a child, spending endless hours, exploring the nearby woods, collecting rocks, building things out of anything that crossed my path. Finding appliance boxes in my neighborhood was pure gold. I built “little homes” where I would climb into them to sketch or read in my little private world.

I decided to be an artist when I was 12 years old. My parents dream was for me to go to college because they didn’t have that opportunity. I studied piano & dance, but I always felt more comfortable, expressing myself visually because that’s where my heart is. However, as a high school student, I was guided towards graphics & teaching, since those were the only acceptable paths to take if I was going to make a living as an artist.

I started college as a graphic designer. I had taken a design class at the Central Art Academy back in Cincinnati, Ohio when I was a sophomore in high school. Design came easily, but didn’t feel inspired & had no emotional meaning for me. After taking classes at Boston University, Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, Continuing Ed at Mass College of Art, I chose Mass Art. I was paying for my education, sometimes work full-time at night in restaurants and go to school during the day or work in offices during the day and go to night school. It all depended on what I could afford.

Mass Art believed students should experiment with every material & method in as many departments as possible, when first starting out. This included a 3-D theory class. I remember grumbling all the way as I headed towards my class, I didn’t understand why I had to take it if I was majoring in graphics. About 20 minutes in the 3-D theory class, my head was exploding with ideas every second, I experienced one of those magnificent AH HA moments. I had never processed information that fast creating 2D art. I understood everything in 3-D immediately. When it came time for the assignment, I already had a piece, creating it in my mind as I walked to my next class. This continued throughout the semester. I couldn’t wait to make the next piece. I couldn’t wait for the next assignment. I added Art History for a dual major; learning through history, all the possibilities of expression through the arts. My favorite medium was casting polyester resin. Starting with clay originals was so sensual, the feeling of pushing clay & shaping it into whatever you wanted felt so right. This is where I would tell my stories. Unfortunately, this was a short-lived experience due to being rear-ended and crushing my neck the day after I graduated from school. And multiple rear end collisions resulting in multiple spine fusions over the years. The need to tell visual stories required me to experiment with different methods & materials. Mixed media seemed a natural transition. So for many years, unable to work for long periods of time, hands that wouldn’t work on occasion, ever-changing limited movement & even times when I would lose sight in one of my eyes losing depth perception & some color blindness that would certainly change how to create a piece but I never stopped making art. Left hand can’t hold anything, let the right hand do the work. Making art helps me manage my pain. I can move freely in my art. Adapt & overcome.

Over the years, I continued to collect things from the local recycling center not really conscious as to what purpose. After my last spine fusion in 2018 and my art studio unavailable due to restoration for 15 months, it gave me the opportunity to re-organize my studio and decide what I would keep. Shortly after everything got returned into the art studio, still all in boxes…surprise …we had to shelter for Covid. Every curse has a blessing. The curse was sheltering for Covid, the blessing was sorting through all my materials, and realizing I could build found object sculptures, 40 years later I returned to creating 3D pieces…felt like going home. Yes, the first pieces were small table size pieces that seem to come together all by themselves as I would listen to my son & his musician friends jam in our shared studio. After participating in a few women’s support groups, I started to tell their stories. Reimagining, reclaiming and repurposing found objects from the recycling center I am able to tell my stories and keep things from going into the landfill.

I’m adding functional repurposed garden wall decor, Kitchen wall decor & Tiny House constructivist sculptures.