Welcome to Catnapin's Meet the Artist Page

Jo Helen Cox

a.k.a. Jo Cox,   a.k.a. Jojie

Jo has a bachelor of Fine Arts focused in sculpture. She also writes poetry, short stories, and novels. For 15 years, she worked as a mechanical draftsman designing home faucets and industrial boilers. She lives in West Texas with her wonderful husband Tom in a house filled with cats.

With a life long passion for geology and paleontology, Jo is learning to be a fossil preparator. She researched and wrote the text for the 2003 "Dinosaurs of Texas" exhibit at the Grace Cultural Museum in Abilene. She cleaned, identified, and mounted nearly 150 fossils for the show.

Nature has always fascinated Jo. Her mother taught her to play with bugs and look closely at plants. A digital camera has given her the opportunity to see the beautiful details and share that experience with others.

"I have always loved to make things. Mom taught us to sew doll clothes and construct toy furniture out of cracker boxes. Dad taught us that junk could become treasures with just a little work."

"Images come to me, dancing in my head, solidifying into forms that must be given life. The act of carving, painting, or writing is a fluid expression of the birth of the subject from the medium. I am in another world while I work and am always surprised upon seeing the finished product."

"The subtlety and extravagance of color is ever present. Be it in nature, paint, stone, wood, or word. Color fills creation with living space."

"I see with my hands; texture must be experienced. Galleries and museums can be very frustrating places for me. They never let you touch anything."