Bainbridge illustrator finds inspiration in the journeys of others

Published 12:06 pm Sunday, October 18, 2015

Joanna Gorham got hooked on stories as a missionary kid in Tanzania. On chilly evenings, Gorham and her brothers would huddle around a small fire, near two baobab trees, and lean into the silky voices of the night watchmen, who’d recount folktales from their childhood.

As much as she delighted in the tradition, however, Gorham didn’t think she had the skills to captivate her own listeners.

“As someone who often forgets the punchline of a joke, or loses the audience with too many unnecessary details, I came to prefer listening and watching people absorb stories,” she explained.

Eventually, that realization led her to become an illustrator; she might get off track with words, but her mind steadily supplied the pictures. And she liked the flexibility of the form; she could leave her stories open-ended and allow her viewers to fill in the gaps with their own details and life experiences.

Of course, Gorham found that the process also happens in reverse, with her own life informing her pictures.

In 2013, she moved to the island from Georgia; her husband snagged a job at Wenzlau Architects and, as a recent graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, she hoped to find work as a graphic designer.

But it just didn’t work out. Interviewers would look at her portfolio and focus on her illustrations instead.

So in the interim, amidst rejections, Gorham would draw and paint.

She kept turning out pictures of women in transition.

“They’re either about to have a baby, or they have just had a baby, or they’re sitting at an airport,” Gorham said. “It’s kind of where I was at the time… Because of the move and having to reinvent myself.”

Some of the subjects are made-up, and some of them are real, like the flower girl at her brother’s wedding.

“We were all getting ready, and she was bouncing around, wanting to be the center of attention,” Gorham said. “But when everybody started getting serious about getting ready, and ignored her for a little bit, she started looking really uncomfortable and like she didn’t know what to do with herself in this big fancy dress.”

Another painting depicts a woman Gorham saw while she was studying abroad in France.

“She was standing by herself in line; she just looked uncomfortable, like maybe she had been with someone, and now she was by herself and trying to adjust to that.”

The discomfort of adjustment might be a common theme in her work, but it seems like Gorham is past that point in her own transition — she’s happily settling.

In recent months, she’s received a number of accolades for her illustrations, and she just celebrated the publication of “Julia Child: An Extraordinary Life in Words and Pictures,” a children’s book for which she provided all the images, back in May.

When she’s not creating in her little red cottage, she’s gardening or stocking up on yarn at Churchmouse. And she’s always tuning into a good story, whether it’s on “The Moth” or Krista Tippett’s “On Being.”

You can view Gorham’s “Women in Transition” watercolor series at Blackbird Bakery, 210 Winslow Way, through Saturday, Oct. 31.

She has prints for purchase on her website, www.joannagorham.com, and is also available for commission work.