Janyce Jackson Jones on the Fluid Nature of Art and Life

Reverend Elder Janyce Jackson Jones was one of the artists showcased in August 2020 at ZAMI NOBLA's visual art exhibit, Cocktails, Tea, and Art. She discovered her passion for art upon retiring to coastal North Carolina after 21 years of dedicated service to her church and social justice causes in Newark, New Jersey. She since has experimented with and been inspired by several techniques and styles, finding what she calls "Creative Happiness" in the process of pouring paint onto canvas to create abstract, vibrantly colored, soul-stirring works of Fluid Art. Online galleries of her art can be found at the following links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janycejacksonjones/?ref=page_internal Instagram https://www.instagram.com/artbyjanyce/ Prior to retirement, Reverend Janyce served as the Co-Pastor of Newark's Unity Fellowship Church (UFC), an inclusive, nondenominational, social justice-oriented ministry. Prior to that, she helped to found Liberation in Truth UFC, also in Newark, serving for eight years as its Pastor and Executive Director of that church's Liberation in Truth Social Justice Center. Under her leadership, that Center provided spiritual, social, and mental health programs and services, classes, support groups, meals, and HIV/AIDS education and prevention services to the greater Newark area including the LGBTIQ community. Reverend Janyce currently lives in the Wilmington, North Carolina, area with her spouse, Valerie Jones, and their dog Buster. Ever the activist, she continues to volunteer and support her intersecting communities of affiliation, working at the local senior center and serving on the boards of the Frank Harr Foundation, SAGE Wilmington, and the local branch of the NAACP.