Joelle Somero is an American collage artist and oil painter. Her approach is constructive, building in layers of glued duck cloth, sometimes cutting through several of them in carefully chosen sections to reveal the inner-most layers of the build. Drawn to the tension of hard-architectural lines among meandering naturalistic ones, she uses the edges and shapes that collage affords her to playfully create arrangements of geometry and abstracted figuration. Consideration for directional natural light while painting guides her decision making. She feels illumination brings her paintings to life.

With a background in interior design and residential building, her approach to art mirrors her approach to design: she prefers to consider and build the bones of the canvas or space first in such a way that the subsequent tones and colors can be thoughtfully minimal. Joelle’s work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Domino, Luxe Magazine, House Beautiful and more.

She spends her days creating at her home studio in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where she lives with her husband and four children. When not in the throes of her work she enjoys spending time outdoors, running and walking along Lake Superior and surrounding forest trails. She has alternate creative outlets as an occasional guitar player and an avid home cook. She loves studying recipes from around the world to cook for friends and family.