On the Locality of Being
I draw on imagery from my everyday, ordinary life, responding to objects in a place and time, to excavate poetry in the mundane. My attempt is to bring color, light, and form of particular localities into correspondence with a greater story. I work outside to have presence in the parish, the land, among people, with God. My work is an attempt to establish and work out a relationship with real things and not just an idea of them.
I work in both small and large formats, both on my own and in participation with others. Every locale, whether a suburban cul-de-sac, an open field, or a coffeehouse, tells the story of particular moments affording an opportunity to pay attention, to love. My paintings are an attempt to inhabit and mediate the space between the material and the immaterial, the earth and the heavens.
A small child riding a bike, neighbors walking their dogs, and engaging in frivolous sidewalk conversation become sacred events not because they are trying to be something but because they are something. In these somethings, I hope to excavate beauty through the locality, transcendence in the particular, and find joy in the carnate of life. The work is not intended to be passively gazed upon but rather to foster participation in and between the moment rendered and the percipient, as an alluding symbol toward the enchanted everyday.
Joey Tomassoni is a husband, father, painter, and missiologist residing in Annapolis, MD. His work encompasses national and international collaborative projects that explore the intersection between faith, beauty, and life. His artwork has been shown internationally and published in the Washington Post, USA Today, and other online and local media outlets. Joey shows his work in galleries, churches, and alternative spaces around the United States and consults with organizations and churches to cultivate beauty within their ecosystems. Joey holds a Master's in Fine Arts (MFA) from American University and a Master’s in Applied Theology (MTh) from the University of Oxford and beginning his PhD work with a focus on Theological Beauty and it’s implications for the Church and her mission in the fall of 2026.