Josephine Close is a high priestess of art. Magic embodies every brush stroke. Her work is a ritual, a talisman, a prayer. She is a visual artist whose primary focus is works on paper. She is a self-taught mixed-media painter with a true love of the natural world, poetry, magic, myths and fairy tales. Black Flowers is very fortunate to feature her work in the journal and I was fortunate enough to ask her a few questions about her work, her creative life and the magic she weaves in her studio.

Can you share the journey that led you to becoming an artist?

I have been creating things all my life. When I was 4, my mother asked me what I wanted to do with my life and I said, “I just want to glue”. I have had many different artistic phases. For years I was a photographer and that was my focus, I like to think that that informed my painting process. For most of my life I have kept visual journals, a mix of my own photographs, found photographs, drawings, paintings, ticket stubs, writing, seaweed, seeds, leaves, dried flowers, dirt, flowers, etc. Anything I could paste in my books basically. At first these were mostly photo based but as years went by they slowly became more painting based. They have always been an incubator for my creative process. When the books became all paintings, I started to get inquiries about purchasing my work and realized, at the time, I had nothing to sell. I also wanted to make pieces to put on my walls, prop on my altar, carry with me, so the change occurred.

What inspired the move to Los Angeles and how does geography inform your work?        

I was going to move back to the East Coast after living in Northern California for a few years. My mother said, “why don’t you try Los Angeles before you move everything, if it doesn’t work out, move back East then.” My mother’s one psychic moment, I don’t know how she knew it would be a perfect fit for me.

My house is straight out of a fairy tale, built a hundred years ago and surrounded by a beautiful courtyard with huge trees, a blessing in a huge city.

People think of Los Angeles in such a critical way. But the truth is, it has everything, you just have to go look for it. I love the art scene, the weather, the sea. I live near a huge park where I love to walk, I have named trees and given them assignments, I have buried my wishes in the ground. I feel so connected with the land here. I tried to leave once a long time ago. It was a disaster. I was miserable the whole time. I would walk around in the freezing cold of New England singing the Mamas and the Papas, “I’d be safe and warm, if I was in LA” I know in my bones I belong here. There is so much magic here, so much art, it’s perfect.

Unfortunately, Los Angeles was hit by the fires recently. While I am safe, I am heartbroken for what my city and all of the people here are going through. My heart breaks more and more every day.

What initially drew you to explore the natural world, poetry, magic, myths and fairy tales in your work?

I grew up in the woods of New Hampshire, where we spent most of our time playing outside. I would make up stories about the woods, about what existed deep in the forest behind our house, creating my own mythology. I was attacked by wild dogs walking to school one day, it was rural and strange. I was introduced to fairy tales early on, like most of us, but I wanted to live in them. I have always been seeking an escape. I think that is my pull to magic as well. The idea of changing my reality. I remember being a teenager and buying witchcraft books and hiding them under my bed so no one would ever know.

Poetry has been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. To me, they are like magical texts, points of conjuring. I am so moved by poetry, I feel it deeply. If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, Anne Carson’s loving translation, is like a spell to me. I am obsessed with that book; almost every page is earmarked. I was told once in a meditation to read Sappho to my Garnets. Still unclear of the result but I have high hopes.  I could write about poets forever but a few other favorites are Mary Oliver (of course), Charles Simic (he wrote a book that was dedicated to my favorite artist of all times, Joseph Cornell), Rimbaud, Laura Gilpin (“The two-headed calf” makes me cry just thinking about it). Basically I think poetry IS magic.

Could you walk us through the process of creating art? Do you take notes, do you photograph ideas first or is it purely an intuitive process?

Most days I meditate in the early morning. After that I am a devoted morning pages person. Ideas sometimes come from that practice but I would say my work is more intuitively based. In my morning pages I have two pens of different colors, one for regular everyday thoughts and one for writing what comes from spirit.

I love the process of art making. I am constantly experimenting, using mediums that should not be mixed to see what the results are. My paintings are layers and layers of paint, gold, papers, beeswax and sometimes other ephemera. I do take notes but mostly after the painting is underway and they are just for myself. When I did commissions in the past the notes were much more important, I would keep my list next to the painting and tune into it while painting.

For my paintings, I start by prepping my papers, I usually use watercolor paper, but also print making paper and sometimes cradled wood panels. For the prepping of the papers I kind of just do whatever feels right in the moment, its always different.  Sometimes I use watercolors, sometimes gouache, sometimes crayons, it really depends. Then a layer of wax goes down, then the first image, and that is kind of like the understory, the subconscious of the piece because then I demolish it with other media.  At this point I look at it and see what is coming though. Pareidolia is a huge part of my process, finding images in the abstract, the messages from spirit. I then run with that. Sometimes the process starts again. It depends on the feelings I get while working.

What does an average day look like for you?

I wake up extremely early. I write my morning pages. Walk the dog. Eat breakfast. I am not a coffee person, I love tea with milk and honey or I make what I call Italian breakfast soda(my name for it), fresh grapefruit juice and sparkling water. Usually, I do my social media things in the morning but I have to be careful because I do get sucked in. I see a post and go down a rabbit hole of research and 2 hours have gone by! But usually,y I make it to the studio around 9 am. I work there until lunch, I eat lunch, walk the dog. Run errands, like mailing paintings and buying art supplies. Then it’s back in the studio until dinner time. I either visit with friends or eat at home. I might read a little and then turn on the TV, I love old black and white movies, old movies in general. I go to bed on the early side because I wake up at the crack of dawn.

Within your work you feature magical and mystical figures plus you mention in your artists statement that “I am the channel, the medium, the spirit. Do you have a spiritual practice that you are happy to talk about?

My spiritual practice is vast. I do have things I do daily. I meditate and pray every day. I spend a lot of time in silence. I burn incense, light candles, I feel like it is all a spell, from the moment I step into my studio to the moment I leave.

In the studio, I have a crystal cave I call “my cooker” I place my hands inside of it everyday before painting to charge them. Also, I use the same rock to charge my small paintings with light. Crystals are a huge part of my art practice. I hold certain stones while painting, sometimes I incorporate crystal dust into my work. I build grids under my tabletop easel to infuse the work with different energies. I use reiki on my studio, on my artwork and on myself.  I ask questions of my pendulum when I am in doubt on what to do on a piece. I have an altar set up in my studio, probably more than one, really the whole studio is a giant altar.  I play music that I want to infuse the art with. I say prayers for the intentions of my paintings.

As far as the line “I am the channel, the medium, the spirit” I believe when I am in the studio and actually painting that I am just the vessel, that spirit is working through me, that I am removed from the equation. As the paintbrush can’t paint without me, I cannot paint without spirit.

Is there anything coming up you would like to mention?

I am going to be in the next Taschen Library of Esoterica book which is going to be on Spirit World. This is the second book I have been included in of theirs as I also had work in the witchcraft book. Such an honor because I adore the series.

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