Joni LaBollita was born in Boston, Massachusetts, raised in South Boston married, and came to Brockton in 1967, where she still resides. She is the mother of 6 grown children. After her last child left home she decided to take art classes at the Fuller Museum of Art. That's when she discovered that she had found her passion in life. Joni has been painting ever since.

Joni considers herself to be an experimental artist and tries to push her the medium as far as she can. She never knows what medium she will use in her work. Usually, beginning without a preconceived idea when she starts a painting. Often she may begin by applying charcoal powders perhaps under painting with an airbrush sprayed through many unusual materials, and applying layers of washes. Adding colored pencils, Caran D'ache crayons, Japanese rice papers and tissue papers. When she feels there is a good under painting she begins to watch for a picture to start developing. Ms LaBollita calls this the spirit in the paper. In her mind she feels that every piece of paper has it's own spirit, and there is a picture hidden in it. This is what she watches for and then begins to develop it. According to Joni it becomes a spiritual or somewhat mystical event. She feels that at some point something takes over and the painting begins to have a life of it's own, and she is no longer in charge anymore. Her goal is not to have a goal just to create and accept what is born of her efforts.

Email: Kalila@aol.com