Ben Joyce: Painting His Way Home

“Art has always been in the fabric of who I am,” says Ben Joyce (’01), renowned Spokane artist known as the “Painter of Place.”

Joyce, who installed a custom art piece, entitled “Gonzaga,” in the Hemmingson Center in fall 2024, dedicated the piece to the University community in hopes that alumni could take a nostalgic stroll back through their time on campus.

“Gonzaga’s a special place and an inspiration for me,” says Joyce. “It’s very much one of the homes in my life.”

The new installation celebrates what makes Gonzaga’s community so special and is the first piece in Joyce’s University Collection. The work creates a connection to place, a reoccurring theme in Joyce’s work.

 

While Joyce grew as an artist during his time at Gonzaga, he became inspired by place during his time abroad at Gonzaga in Florence (’98-’99).

While in Italy, Joyce observed the way people interacted with one another and carried themselves, and he was struck by the pride of place he witnessed. He watched them look over the Arno and the Duomo with passion and awareness, and he became inspired to find a way to paint that emotion into a landscape.

“That’s where the fire started,” says Joyce. “I thought ‘There’s got to be a way to create a landscape and connect individuals to their place through that emotional connection.’”

A year after graduating, Joyce had moved back to Spokane and was exploring different artistic styles in his work when, one day, inspiration finally struck.

Joyce was looking up at his ceiling, and in a moment, he felt as though the room had inverted and he was instead looking down. He observed the geometrical lines of his ceiling and how he could see down the hallway by following the edges.

“And I thought, ‘If I painted from an aerial perspective, then I could capture all the lines in an area that people connect with, and then they’ll be able to put themselves on the ground to reconnect with those lines,’” Joyce says.

“In that same moment, I realized that I could never fully frame a piece either. A frame would contradict what geography is and confine that experience, so I decided to open up the frame and use lines in the area to almost create a puzzle piece.”

 

This motif can be seen in Joyce’s most recent piece, “Gonzaga,” which views the campus from an aerial point of view, highlighting the lines of the Spokane River, Sharp Avenue and the outlines of campus buildings.

Next up for Joyce is a commissioned piece for the Gonzaga in Florence campus, which he considers another one of his homes.

“It’s a complete honor to be able to not only hang here in Spokane but to have the opportunity to do the same over in Florence,” Joyce says. “It’s coming full circle to do the project in Florence and go back to where the first inspiration of place occurred.”

The work will be completed by the end of Summer 2025, and Joyce hopes to document the whole project on social media so Zags can follow along and observe the process.

The work will share the theme of reconnecting to time on campus, as Joyce hopes alumni will be able to travel back to their time abroad and reforge their connection to place.

In honor of Joyce’s gratitude to the Gonzaga community, 25% of each sale of the “Gonzaga” print will go towards the student scholarship endowment as will editions of the Florence piece when completed. Already, $20,000 has been raised for students. Prints are available for purchase on Joyce’s website, painterofplace.com.