Dallas artists Joel Sampson and Maureen Brouillette

Mae West once said that love isn’t an emotion or an instinct—it’s an art. This remains true for Joel Sampson and Maureen Brouillette, two local artists who live and work in Dallas. Joel and Maureen have been married for four years, but they have more than just a love for each other; they also share a love for art.

Joel and Maureen have different styles that set them apart from each other. Joel generally works in mixed media and combines his digital media with paint and collage materials. He believes he has a unique viewpoint because he prefers what he calls “hard-edged design and “funky.” He gets most of his inspiration from industrial and urban areas and “finds beauty in man-made objects.” “His eye goes to different things,” said Maureen. Joel‘s work is influenced by hard lines and symmetry in pop art by artists such as Stuart Davis, Ferdnand Lèger and Walker Evans. He is also greatly influenced by Ralston Crawford’s photography. When he works he prefers a very organized working space and listens to jazz. Maureen prefers working with acrylic paints and digital images of photography for her collages in a private and comfortable environment.

She feels that “the more [an artist] gets into [his] own head, gets more personal and develops technique; individual style will come as a natural evolution. You don’t try, it just happens, I feel sure about that.” Maureen’s biggest influence is her father, Al Brouillette, who was a member of the National Academy, a prestigious association of professional artists. Other influences include representational art by Andrew Wyeth and Richard Diebenkorn. She is also inspired by Robert Rauschenberg’s mixed media art. “It’s not that you’re choosing to copy, it just becomes part of your taste and comes out naturally [in your work.]” Maureen and Joel also admit to being influenced by each other—Maureen has become more interested in industrial buildings and Joel has gotten more into painting since they got married. Other than sharing some subject matter, their styles differ from one another; however, some audiences have been known to mistake one’s art for the other. Joel jokingly said “Mine’s better,” then Maureen replied “No, mine is better!”

Both Maureen and Joel have differences in style as well as goals. Joel would like to have his work displayed in museums. One of his pieces is in the Amon Carter Permanent Collection in Fort Worth. He recently returned from a trip to Illinois where he took photographs of a barn on his family’s property and plans to work with them and create large-scale images. Maureen has a long-term goal of becoming more skilled in landscape painting. She is currently working on a series of landscape paintings on canvas in acrylic paint.

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