Joan Witte is an emerging artist whose work straddles genres and mediums. Primarily working in oil and encaustic, she also explores mixed media. While her style leans toward representational imagery, her subject matter often channels the subconscious, echoing abstract expressionists.

Heavily influenced by her rural upbringing in southeast Michigan, Witte’s art is rooted in the natural world. Her vivid, color-rich paintings reflect her connection to the environment and an ongoing fascination with the intersection of nature and psychology. Flowers are used not just for their aesthetic appeal but for their historic role as symbolic messengers of human emotion.

Witte’s art is not only about beauty. She also confronts deeper, more difficult truths — mental health and the human condition. Her work becomes a visual conversation starter, offering space to reflect on topics society often avoids.

Primarily self-taught, Joan began drawing in elementary school. She spent her secondary school years filling notebooks with more doodles than notes. Her childhood bedroom walls were her first canvas, and that early freedom instilled a love of large-scale work. Her painting career started in 2019. She has studied at community colleges, Eastern Michigan University, and continues to refine her craft through workshops, artist communities, and independent study.

Witte creates bold, emotionally charged pieces that speak to both personal experience and universal themes. Her work is an invitation—to feel, to question, and connect.

Juried Shows

• PARC Art Gallery, PARC Invitational, Winter 2025

• Grosse Pointe Artist Association, Shapes and Lines, Winter 2025

• Three Cities Fall Show, Oct 2025 to Jan 2026

• Grosse Pointe Artist Association, Mind-blowing, Fall 2025

• Lawrence Street Gallery, Body Eclectic, February 2025

• Grosse Pointe Artist Association, The Team, January 2025

• HMVC Gallery New York, ‘Cuz I’m Happy, January 2025

• Scarab Club, 111th Gold Members Show December 2024

• Riverside Art Center, The Winter Solstice December 2024

• Lawrence Street Gallery, Think Small December 2024

• Swords into Plowshares, Women's Liberation November 2024

• Riverside Art Center, Anything but Canvas September 2024

• Art 634, Reduce-Reuse-Recycle Art Exhibit, August 2024

• Glen Arbor Arts Center, Shrines + Altars, August 2024

• HMVC Gallery New York, Piece of Me Art Show, February 2024

• Plymouth Community Arts Council, What is Your Sign?, January - February 2024

• PARC Art Gallery, Art and Soul Exhibit, Plymouth, MI Jan -Mar 2024

• Hot Days Cool Art Exhibit & Sale, PARC Art Gallery, Plymouth, MI, June 2023

• Seeds of Change | Resilience | Show hosted in partnership by Women's Caucus for Art Michigan and the 22 North Gallery in Ypsilanti, Michigan (April 2023 to May 2023)

• Looking for the Light, Galerie Camille, Detroit, MI (May 10 to May 31, 2022)

• Black Box Gallery, Dearborn, MI (June 6 through July 31, 2022)

• Huron River Artist Collective Fall Show, Malletts Creek Branch Library, Ann Arbor, MI (Oct to Dec. 3, 2021)

• Three Cities Art Club 9th Annual Juried Exhibit 2021-2022, Westland City Hall, MI (Nov. 5 to Jan. 17, 2021/2)

Non-Juried Exhibits

• Sweetwaters Canton, MI May - June 2024

• Honeycomb Gallery, Farmington, MI currently on display

• Joe and Rosie Coffee and Tea, Dexter, MI (Summer 2021/Fall 2020)

• Sweetwaters Coffee and Tea, Ann Arbor, MI (Summer 2020)

• Between the Comments, fundraiser for the National Alliance of Mental Illness (virtual July 1-14, 2020)

Retail Partner

• Frameworks, Plymouth MI

Memberships

• Scarab Club

• Riverside's Ypsilanti Fine Arts Club

• Three Cities Art Club