JOANNA HOUTS ART
After years of surviving, rebuilding, and listening closely to my body, art became a way of making meaning — not by forcing answers, but by letting sensation, memory, and intuition lead. Some of these pieces were created during deep integration and healing. Others emerged through movement, music, and aliveness. All of them belong to the same practice: remaining embodied.
Select works are available for purchase and are offered as extensions of my creative and healing practice.
"Honu" Mixed Media on 16x20 canvas Honu came through intuitively during an emotional release—beginning in anger and settling into calm. As the energy moved, my body softened, my breath deepened, and she appeared. Her jellyfish companions followed, drifting in with ease and quiet trust. Honu carries the wisdom of ebb and flow. She reminds us that healing doesn’t happen through force, but through allowing—through letting the waves move us rather than fighting them. This piece holds a gentle, regulating presence, inviting the nervous system to soften and the body to exhale. Created as a visual anchor for calm, Honu is a reminder that you are allowed to slow down, to trust the rhythm of your own healing, and to know—deep in your body—that things can and do work out. - Available -
"Fox Family on Snowy Evening" 16x20 mixed media on canvas Fox Family on a Snowy Evening was inspired by the foxes who pass through my neighborhood — wild, playful, and free in a way that always stops me in my tracks. But as I painted, something deeper came through. The mama fox watches over her kits with a love that is steady and expansive — protective without caging, present without controlling. It is the kind of love I always wanted to give my children. The kind that says: you are safe, you are free, you are allowed to be exactly who you are. As a survivor of a 24-year abusive marriage, that kind of peace — my full presence, their safety — wasn't something I could give them. Not until I escaped, when they were already in their teens. Beneath a full moon, on a rainbow path, this family moves together through the snow. Unhurried. Unafraid. Whole. This piece is a love letter — to wildness, to motherhood, to the ones we hold and the ones we carry in ways the world never gets to see. - Available -
"She Looks Sweet Tho" Mixed Media on canvas, 11x14 She was only curious. The flowers were minding their business. The tea was perfectly safe… for now. This piece began as a simple still life and slowly revealed a moment of quiet domestic chaos—frozen just before gravity takes over. A sweet-looking cat, a hovering paw, and a cup that’s one gentle nudge away from disaster. Guided more by play than plan, this painting is a small reminder that the most charming moments often arrive uninvited—and that innocence and mischief sometimes look exactly the same. - Available -
"Hot TamaLlama" Mixed Media on 11x14 Canvas Hot Tamallama is a reminder that joy is not something we wait for when life gets easier. It is something we choose, again and again, in the middle of it. She dances not because the road is smooth, but because movement keeps the spirit alive. She plays because laughter is how the body remembers itself. Her joy is earned through presence, not perfection. Eyes closed, she sways to an inner rhythm — finding pockets of delight tucked between responsibilities, grief, and becoming. She teaches that joy can coexist with effort, with uncertainty, with the weight of real life. Surrounded by desert plants that survive by adapting, Hot Tamallama shows us that resilience doesn’t have to be rigid. It can be colorful. It can be playful. It can have flair. Her medicine is simple and radical: even here, even now, joy is available. Not as an escape — but as nourishment. Not loud all the time — but remembered in small, sacred moments. She invites us to dance in the kitchen. To laugh at ourselves. To notice the warmth of the sun, the beat of a song, the softness of a breath. Life isn’t easy. But joy is still allowed. And she’s here to remind us. ✨ Available
"Through The Trees" Mixed Media on 9x12 canvas Through The Trees is about what happens when you stop forcing clarity and allow yourself to see slowly. Layer by layer, this piece mirrors the way healing actually works—not in straight lines, not all at once, but in glimpses. Light filters through textured trunks and papered leaves, suggesting safety, presence, and the quiet reassurance that you are not lost… you are simply moving through. The vertical forms feel like steady companions—witnesses rather than obstacles—inviting the viewer to soften, ground, and remember their own inner rhythm. There is no demand here. No urgency. Just permission to breathe, to rest your eyes, and to trust that clarity comes when the body feels safe enough to receive it. This piece holds space for nervous system repair, grief integration, and the gentle rebuilding of trust with oneself. It is a visual reminder that even when the path isn’t fully visible, the light is already finding you. - Available -
"Funky Orange" Mixed Media on 11x14 canvas It was a playful evening of layering, texturing, and following curiosity wherever it led. No agenda. No outcome. Just paint, presence, and the quiet delight of making something for the pure joy of it. Look closely and you'll find the layers beneath — patterns, texture, collage, color — all living together under that luminous golden skin. She's simple on the surface and complex underneath. Kind of like healing. Kind of like us. This one is a reminder that not everything needs to be deep to be meaningful. Sometimes joy IS the meaning. - Available -
"Unraveling" Acrylic on 12x18 on archival paper, mounted on wood panel This piece came through as I was peeling back the layers— the ones placed on me by upbringing, religion, and inherited beliefs. Every line is a thread I had to tug at. Every color a part of the story I once accepted without question. The golden path running through it? That’s my truth. The one I had to find by letting it all come undone. This is the becoming. The sacred tangle. The choice to unravel what no longer fits and make space for what’s real. - Available -
"Singing Me To Her" Acrylic on 12x18 on archival paper, mounted on wood panel I painted this while dreaming of Hawaii— not as a vacation, but as a becoming. The waves, soft and rhythmic, feel like breath. The sun, dipping behind the horizon, feels like surrender. This is how paradise speaks to me— not loudly, but with light, warmth, and welcome. Every stroke was a yes to my future. A prayer in color. A reminder: I belong to beauty. - Not Available -
"Inspiration from Injury" Acrylic on 12x18 on archival paper, mounted on wood panel I created this not long after my brain injury— during nights when I couldn’t sleep. The nightmares, the panic attacks, the fog… they were constant. But inside all the frustration and grief, something else was blooming. The shape on the left began as the line of my scar. I followed it—and a bouquet emerged. This painting holds the duality of healing: the anger and the growth, the limitations and the expansion, the stillness and the soul-level transformation. It’s messy. Raw. And also peaceful. A bouquet from a scar. A body still finding beauty in the wake of pain. - Available -
"Heffalumps & Healing" Acrylic on 12x18 on archival paper, mounted on wood panel One of my earliest works after my brain injury. I wasn’t trying to paint anything specific— I just wanted to play. And then these two abstract elephants appeared. Bold. Whimsical. A little ridiculous. But joyful. They reminded me that even in pain, even in relearning how to create, joy can still visit the canvas. This one feels like laughter. Like inner child permission. Like the moment I remembered: “I still know how to have fun.” - Available -
"Sacred Scroll" Acrylic on 12x12 wood panel Another exploration of limitation— this time with purple and yellow. I set out to let two colors teach me what was possible. And what emerged felt… ancient. Feminine. Soft and powerful. This piece feels like a whisper in paint. A sacred scroll. A remembering. Created with constraint. Infused with freedom. - Available -
"Constraint as Catalyst" Acrylic on 12x12 wood panel This piece was created with one rule: only red and yellow. What emerged was a layered, living landscape of curves, textures, and story. What began as a color limitation became a portal— a way to explore what’s possible within boundaries, not despite them. A quiet reminder that sometimes the most vibrant revelations come when we choose to stay inside the lines… and then reimagine them completely. - Available -
"This Is Why We Fight" Black & white collage on 12x12 wood panel This piece names what is often left unnamed. Built from fragmented headlines, religious iconography, and disrupted bodies, This Is Why We Fight exposes how violence becomes normalized — not through chaos, but through familiarity. Through systems that train us to look away, spiritualize harm, or accept injustice as inevitable. The torn edges speak to erasure. The layering mirrors information overload. The paint interrupts what we’re conditioned to absorb without question. Religion, whiteness, war, and nature are not presented as isolated themes, but as interwoven forces shaping whose lives are protected and whose suffering is justified. This work is not about aggression — it is about clarity. It is about the moment silence stops feeling neutral. It is about the refusal to make peace with what harms. This is why we fight. - Available -
"Even While Apart" Acrylic on 18x18 canvas | Second in a gifted pair — Not Available — Created as a companion piece to Still, With You, this painting honors connection that endures beyond presence—rooted, whole, and woven in love. The deep blue vessel holds quiet strength, while soft botanical forms and glowing earth tones evoke warmth, growth, and sacred simplicity. A sphere hovers above like a steady sun—or perhaps a second soul—gently illuminating the space between. This piece speaks to the beauty of partnership that stretches across time, space, and season. For the love that remains—even while apart. — Not Available —
"Still, With You" Acrylic on 18x18 Canvas | Gifted to My Son & Daughter-in-Law — Not Available — A quiet meditation in form, space, and connection. This piece was created as a Christmas gift—anchored in warmth and built from simple shapes that hold deeper meaning. The vase form represents grounding and lineage. The rising plant, new beginnings. The arch echoes safety and growth, while the dark sphere above evokes mystery and steady presence. Made with intention. Given with love. — Not Available —
"Mama" Acrylic on 18x18 canvas | Gifted in memoriam | — Not Available — Painted as a sacred tribute, this piece was created for my niece to honor her mother—my beloved sister-in-law—whose spirit now visits as a white butterfly. Her favorite flower, the tuberose, blooms softly beneath the soft white wings, glowing with memory, scent, and presence. Set against a serene sky of teal and cobalt, this piece whispers connection, remembrance, and eternal love. Even when we can’t hold them, we are held. Even when they leave, they stay. Mama, you’re still here. In the hush of wings. In the bloom of every gentle thing. — Not Available —
"Freedom Bird" (Embroidered Quetzal) Hand embroidery, 5-inch hoop - Not Available - This bird is part of my story. Years ago, when I was still in my abusive marriage and deep inside the church, a friend prayed over me. She said, “Joanna, you are a beautiful, colorful bird—and you were never meant to be caged.” At the time, I didn’t know what freedom would look like. I only knew that something inside me was still alive. The quetzal became my personal symbol of freedom— a bird that can’t survive in captivity. A reminder that my joy, my color, my self could never be truly contained. She lives with me now—stitched by hand, feather by feather. A soft rebellion. A sacred remembering. A prayer answered. — Not Available —