BIO

Self-taught mixed media artist Pamela Jones grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and now resides on Florida’s Gulf Coast in Punta Gorda. She was (and still is) a freelance fashion and casino gaming writer before becoming an artist. Her work consists of carefully detailed assemblages made with repurposed objects, thrift store treasures and fascinating finds.

Pamela’s art journey began with small shrines called Shelliquaries, inspired by Catholic reliquaries that contain a chunk of a saint’s or deity’s bone. Shelliquaries, however, are built around bonelike shells found on nearby beaches. Pamela first saw a reliquary when she worked at a Catholic university in St. Louis. There, a nun friend showed her the reliquary in the convent’s private chapel. This was a life-changing event! One-of-a-kind personal, portable shrines, Shelliquaries look like something a monk might have taken along on his journeys. They inspire people to come up with their own stories and appeal to their curiosity about what might be inside.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, when she was homebound, Pamela adapted Shelliquaries to create Buddhaquaries, meant to evoke feelings of peace and joy.

A dedicated thrifter, Pamela found a bag full of vintage rubber clown heads at a junk store, leading to the Bad Clowns series, which depicts the terrible things clowns do and their “just rewards.” The pieces express Pamela’s and many people’s coulrophobia (fear and loathing of clowns), which began for Pamela at age 3 when she held her breath and passed out on a kiddie train passing through a tunnel lined with clown faces.

More recently, Pamela shifted to fiber art. Her Gypsy Jazz series was inspired by her love of the vibrant music of legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt and the colors and textures of gypsy life. This may be related to DNA test results tracing her ancestry to Bohemia.

Continually experimenting, collecting and dreaming, Pamela believes her art path still has quite a long way to go!

In addition, Pamela is a costumer for the community theater and a certified Tarot card reader.