Giust creates joyful, abstract paintings in acrylics and watercolors.  Her favorite subjects are from everyday life -- women, families, musical instruments, and flowers.  The artist’s work developed from realism to a personal style inspired by the intuitiveness and boldness of her own children's artwork.  Her lyrical and imaginative paintings reflect optimism, humor and spirituality. 

 

Giust is energized by music and often paints to the sounds of jazz, classical or rock.  She loved the subject of geometry while growing up, and is inspired by Matisse and Picasso whose paintings explore the interplay of line, shape, and color.  Giust explains, “For me, it’s the idea of playfulness – that I don’t have to treat everything the way reality treats it; I start with an idea and let the painting tell me where to go next.”  One critic writes that Giust’s figures “relax or move in a loose dance of shapes, shades and patterns that delight the eye and tickle the imagination [Clarion Ledger, 1998].”

 

Giust was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and received a B.A. in Art and Psychology from Hope College in Holland, Michigan. 

 

Recent Awards & Exhibitions

 

2008    “Amy Giust & Ron Romano”, two-person show, Miller Gallery, Cincinnati, OH

2007    One-person show, Wesson, Mississippi; three-person show, Jackson, Mississippi

2006    Commissioned to paint Stations of the Cross, Westminster Presbyterian Church, PA

2004    “Amy Giust: Lyrical Expressions,” Miller Gallery, Winter Park, FL

2004, 2003, 2001, 2000, 1998            One-person show, Jackson, Mississippi

2004    “My South” exhibition, Republican Convention, New York, NY

2004    Cover artist for annual issues of “Mississippi Libraries”

2002    Two-person show, Miller Gallery, Cincinnati, OH

2002    U.S. Department of State Art in Embassies Program, paintings selected for residence of the American Ambassador to Portugal in Lisbon

2001    “Whimsy II,” Miller Gallery, Cincinnati, OH

2000    “A Whimsical Eye,” Miller Gallery, Cincinnati, OH

1999    South Mississippi Art Association Annual Exhibition, first place, mixed media; second place, oil & acrylic

1999    Hazeldon Publishing, Minnesota, National Art Competition Finalist

1998, 1996      South Mississippi Art Association Annual Exhibition; second place, acrylic

 

Selected Collections: 

The University of Southern Mississippi; Hinds Community College; Brandon

Library; Mississippi Library Association; University Medical Center of Jackson; Hattiesburg

Civic Center; American South Bank; Flowood Public Library; Forrest General Hospital