Jotina Ballard

Jotina is an artist who works at the PASC Detroit Studio. She makes both paintings and drawings. When working in both watercolors and colored pencils, Jotina has a distinctive way of applying these mediums, by laying separate colors next to each other to create a thatched cross-hatching, like animal hairs. Each strand of color gives her objects a furry, rainbow-like quality. Her subjects range from religious iconography and temples to everyday objects. Humans appear as expressive, ghost-like figures in negative space, emphasizing the absence of the person.

Her artwork has been exhibited at Art Enables, Washington, DC (2024); PASC Detroit Gallery, Detroit, MI (2024); Art Gallery at Westland City Hall, Westland, MI (2022/2024); PASC Southgate Gallery, Southgate, MI (2021); and the Scarab Club, Detroit, MI (2021).