Sights set on Venice

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This article was published 09/05/2017 (3113 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Don’t settle for anything less than your dreams — that’s Michael Joyal’s philosophy, and it’s working for him so far.

The West End artist is currently crowdfunding in order to get himself to Venice, Italy for a two-week art course that he hopes will take his work and his connections to the art world to the next level. Joyal has been an artist for 20 years, primarily painting, and much of what he does today is self-taught.

He and his wife have travelled and lived throughout Canada, but eventually ended up in Winnipeg 12 years ago. For Joyal, it was a move forward.

“I knew the arts community here is just insanely huge and supportive,” he said. “I knew it would be a good place to go. When we left Edmonton, I told myself I’d find a career in the arts somehow.”

Now, he’s fulfilled that goal by working at Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, although his job there is more to do with databases and numbers. And when the day is done, Joyal comes home to his studio where he continues another kind of work.

“Art was always a huge part of my life,” he said. “When we got to Winnipeg I kind of used learning about the city to inspire a whole bunch of new art and that’s sort of how I came to love Winnipeg and all it could offer.”

He said that while he’s familiar with how to set up an exhibit and produce a collection, the course in Venice will give him a better understanding of other areas, such as art history, art writing and examination of art.

“Also the connections you can make—there’s some pretty big names in the art world… and there are people from Rome, Saudi Arabia, Canada, U.S. It’s going to be an insane collection of people from around the planet. The connections I’ll make will take me to a whole new level in my art career.”

Joyal’s Gofundme page showed almost $5,000 out of $7,000 raised at press time. He said most of the donations have come from friends and artists—people that he knows on a personal level. It’s been a humbling show of support and community, Joyal says.

“It’s been very eye-opening,” he said. “Because you know friends and people like what you do, but the messages and the support have really shone a light on the strong community I have. People want you to succeed.

“If you put yourself out here and ask, generally, the universe wants you to achieve your dreams.”

For more information, visit gofundme.com/mikesartadventure