Today we’d like to introduce you to Jo Coyle.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My professional relationship with art has been on and off over the years based on my whims or necessity. After drawing for many years as a kid, I ended up transferring to Carver Center for Arts & Technology my sophomore year of high school to study fine arts there, where I was particularly interested in sculpture and what was called “telemedia” at the time. I rebelled upon graduation and studied psychology and military science at the University of Montana for a year, hoping to train in army civilian psychology before I missed art and home too much and got my degree in fine art from Mount St. Mary’s University in 2011.
Unfortunately, as said above, it was 2011. Lacking confidence and employment opportunities, I didn’t pursue art and instead in the poor economy found outdoor-industry part-time jobs to tide me over until my father trusted me enough to put me in charge of branding and visual identity for his new insurance company in 2012. This shoed me into a career in marketing, and for a decade or more I floated between jobs in graphic design and branding, marketing, and communications for various corporate and nonprofit clients or employers.
Art was always there, I just had to push it away for the sake of survival, and when everything else was taking up so much of my mental space it was hard to come back to it. I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 27, which explained a lot of why it was hard to spread my focus and energy to keep it around as a hobby, and why I hated taking instruction from other people so much. I was always creative, floating from writing to game design in my spare time, but didn’t reunite with art fully until I got pregnant and too ill to stay at my shiny brand new agency job in email communications in fall 2019.
It wasn’t until after I had my daughter during the pandemic that I started painting again. I think I’d lost so much of myself by then, especially after having a kid and dealing with debilitating PPD, that I realized art might still be anchored in my identity somewhere. This rekindling of my artistic journey led me to my first solo exhibition of portraits in 2022 that focused on women’s mental health, and eventually another corporate pause and then my second exhibition in February 2026 of landscape paintings at Gallery Blue Door in Baltimore. I still wonder where this journey is going in current trying times, debating what media or subjects I’d like to explore next, but I’m committing to keeping it in my life.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Explained in the question before this a bit, but I’ll reiterate that American life as we know it is hard on artists financially and socially. Where I am especially there’s a lot of social expectation to be a proud working mother and have a cookie cutter house, or a master’s or something or other to distinguish yourself. It’s hard for me to look on my turbulent career and pick out much but specific projects that I’ve been proud of, but a lot of jobs I’ve left just due to not feeling like I was in the right space ethically. I’m still trying to see how art plays in what makes me happy now, and what I’m trying to say with it, if I need put any expectations on it at all for risk of losing the joy that comes from it.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My work is all over the place and I joke that I’m subject to an “art roulette” in my brain. I think some artists make it by specializing in one medium or subject, whether it’s paintings only or abstract art only, etc, and hone that until they have people demanding their work. Good for them – I am noncommittal in comparison, though lately have focused on painting light-based scenes, an academic challenge for me that I hope to continue this year. I am a very sensory person, so often my choices in what I’m creating are led by sensory itches or urges when it comes to what material or scale I want to use for my next piece. For instance, do I want to paint smooth lines with flowing paint, or scratch at a piece of wood with charcoal with the full sweep of my arm?
As for what I’m most proud of, I like to tell stories with my work and provide spaces for other people to own it. My recent Siren collection featured portraits dictated by the subjects – I translated questionnaires of their journeys with mental health into water temperatures and aesthetics to provide them healing representations they could resonate with. Otherwise, my Light Fixtures collection is meant to provide space for viewers’ emotional reaction to nature and its relationship with light. I sometimes make art for myself but often do so as an educational practice; otherwise, much of my art lately has been a conversation with others.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I’ve grown up in Baltimore County, but was always pumped to venture into the city as a kid for the attractions like the aquarium, and of course as an adult for its restaurants, events and general cozy nightlife around Canton and Fells. I love that it’s a puzzle of various historic districts with their own gems from the Walter’s Art Gallery to the harbor and the historic ships. I love the piers and industrial aesthetics and hope to do more plein air of boats and factories this spring. Even though I’m a Hereford Zone kid, it’s easy for parts of it to feel like home as soon as I step in–especially when sharing vodka with strangers at Polish Caroling.
As for what I like least, I’m so sad at seeing how many businesses are closing or being swept up by big corporations. Baltimore’s full of gems and now that includes some blood diamonds, it seems. There’s been controversy surrounding Atlas groups sweeping up business from small restaurants and landlords locking others out of income since the pandemic, and it’s really a damn shame that unfortunately, economic changes like this seduce the outside world to refocus on our crime rates instead of our charm. The Baltimore landscape is changing, but I’m confident Baltimoreans will keep its essence alive.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jocoyle.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jocoyleart
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jocoyleart/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-coyle-2719b72a
- Other: https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/jocoyle
