Calm Before The Storm by Kimie Joe

Original Mixed Media Handmade tiles, epoxy and oil painting on large canvas 48"x60"x1.5" 

Calm Before the Storm is deeply personal to Kimie Joe, a reflection of a moment in her life when she felt a sense of peace, even while knowing that change was inevitable. Like the flow of a river, life moves in ways that cannot be predicted or controlled. Yet within that uncertainty, there are moments of stillness.

Through layered textures, organic movement, and subtle shifts in tone, Kimie captures that quiet, suspended space, where calm exists not because nothing is changing, but because she has learned to be present within it. The work holds both awareness and surrender, embracing the truth that transformation is always on the horizon, even in our most peaceful moments.

Materiality is central to the piece, rooted in Kimie’s background as a chemical engineer and her work as a materials engineer on the International Space Station program. Her deep understanding of how materials behave, bond, and evolve informs every layer. She incorporates clay as a symbol of memory, reflecting its physical property of retaining form, even after being shaped and reshaped. It speaks to the way experiences imprint themselves on us, soft yet enduring. In contrast, epoxy acts as a stabilizing force: a hard, binding element that secures fragments in place, holding together what might otherwise drift apart.

Oil paint grounds the work in tradition. Its richness, depth, and slow drying time allow for contemplation and revision, echoing the passage of time and the layering of lived experience. This interplay between traditional oil and experimental mixed media reflects her dual identity: engineer and artist, precision and intuition, structure and flow.

Rather than resisting what comes next, Calm Before the Storm becomes an intimate meditation on acceptance, trust, and the beauty of simply feeling calm when it arrives.