About

Hi, I’m JoDee Luna, an oil, mixed media, and acrylic portrait artist, author of  Refrain from the Identical: Insights and Inspiration for Creative Eclectics, and owner of JoDee Luna Art and Luna Arts & Ed, LLC.

My expertise as an educator melds with my passion and experience as an artist to make learning fun and creating art easy.   I have a knack for inspiring and teaching people of all ages to create and helping creatives overcome blocks so they can realize their artistic potential.

We artistic types need to create to feel alive. I’m convinced the good Lord made us this way. It’s how we process our thoughts and feelings, make sense out of life, and pass on God’s grace to others.

Artist’s Statement

Art is the soul made visible…the spirit tangible…the unseen possible! When I write, my soul escapes through a pen; but when I paint, imagination finds gentle expression through the tip of a brush. 

Eyes draw the viewer into my paintings because they are the windows of the soul. A face reflects a person’s essence, so each portrait envisions various aspects of faith, traits, places, and aspirations. Painting portraits releases God’s grace to help me move forward while extending inspiration to others.

Oil Paintings:

My portrait painting journey begin with acrylics, then transitioned into mixed media, and now is oil on canvas. Each art form has advantages and challenges. I enjoy the texture of oils and their creamy, slow drying properties allow me to return to make adjustments.

Mixed Media Process:

Inspiration comes with images I envision. Personal photography provides background photos. Sometimes the process reverses with a photo shoot resulting in an idea for a mixed media portrait. I use Golden gel medium to fix the photos onto the canvas for my mixed media portraits. Next, I sketch the image over the background and then paint with acrylics. 

Models for mixed media, acrylic, and oil portraits are often people I know or faces I create using Photoshop. 

My hope is that you will find the resources you need to discover and develop your artistic identity as you explore my website and YouTube Channel.

If you want more of what you see, connect with me around the web: https://linktr.ee/jodeeluna

Email List

You can also sign up for my Email List to receive free resources to help you along your creative journey.

Book for Creatives

I understand how difficult it is to balance a career with the pursuit of artistic passions, so I wrote a book, Refrain from the Identical: Insights and Inspiration for Creative Eclectics, to offer tips and inspiration for busy creatives.

My business, Luna Arts & Ed, helps clients capture and communicate their message to inform and captivate consumers. Luna Arts & Ed delivers outstanding results across 3 key areas: professional development, whiteboard animation, and Multi-Media Arts/Graphic Design.

Sign up to receive: Artistry Unleashed: Inspiration and Resources for Creatives.

The Back Story

Raised with a paintbrush, crochet needle, or sculpting dough in hand, I inherited my creative mind from my Italian mother, who I see as a master of living comfortably with shifting creative rhythms. 

My own creative shifts took me to the Netherlands as an early adult, where I worked as a leader with a creative arts urban mission. My artistic quests led and comforted my through a divorce, a long period of single parenthood, a journey back to school, a career as a teacher, and instructional coach for the Lancaster School District, overseeing technology-based literacy programs and arts integration.

Currently, I’m enjoying retirement from public education as I pursue a wide variety of creative endeavors.

During my free time today, you will find me painting, gardening, blogging, dabbling in mixed media, crafting hand-made masks, writing, shooting photos, arranging flowers, dancing, or collaborating with my husband, daughters, and grandchildren on any of the above. When I’m not creating, I’m most likely sleeping…and dreaming about the next project.