JoyfullArt

ARTISAN NAME: Yelena Joy

CREATIONS: Wall Art, Paper Crafts

ARTISAN STATEMENT: (Excerpt from interview with People Around Us, June 8, 2026)

Leila: Many of your wallpaper works and memory journals begin with materials that already carry a past life. Through your volunteer work with FabMo, you transform forgotten surfaces into something deeply personal and expressive. What draws you to reclaimed materials, and what stories do you feel they already hold before you begin creating? Does working with rescued materials change the way you think about beauty, memory, or waste?

Yelena: It actually started very personally in my own studio. I felt sad throwing away beautiful high-end paper scraps from my large watercolor pieces, so I began assembling them by hand into small sketchbooks and journals. Later, volunteering with FabMo completely expanded my perspective. They introduced me to an incredible variety of surplus materials I didn't even know existed.

Working with rescued materials made me realize how many inspiring items already exist in the world, waiting to be reimagined. I want other creatives to know about resources like FabMo because these materials can bring so much life to schools, studios, and community spaces. We did the same thing recently by repurposing used surfboards. Objects once connected to personal adventures on the water were transformed into lasting art pieces for the owners' homes. Their history didn't disappear; it became a legacy piece, preserving a lifetime of emotion and memory through art.

WEBSITE: www.joyfullart.com

INSTAGRAM: @yelenajoyart