Today we’d like to introduce you to Jolynn Forman.
Hi Jolynn, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I teach High School art at Timpanogos High in Orem. I teach the only full stained glass program in the state! I started the program in 2018 with three classes that lead to an internship at Holdman Studios at Thanksgviing Point. We are also in the process of creating a 42 sectioned stained glass mural in the school that will be over 50 feet long when done (we have about 10 feet done currently). The students LOVE glass making! I am a professional mosaic glass artist and have won multiple national awards for my work. My art pieces have been in museums across Utah and USA. My current endeavor is starting a Utah County art group called the Timpanogos Art Initiative where art teachers and art students paint murals in the community to beautify “ugly” things. We are painting power boxes, canal concrete structures and other spots for free to help add art to our surroundings. So far, our group has painted several pieces on the Murdoch Trail and other locations.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has been super rough in spots. There was no curriculum for a secondary glass program so I had to create one from scratch which took two years. We struggle with supplies and costs so I am constantly asking for grants and donations. The stained glass program has been a huge success but I have to spend several hundred hours a year unpaid to get the mural windows done plus other activities outside of the classroom to keep our program going. The Initiative is new but it has gone well so far. Our biggest headache is affording the outside paint; concrete paint is expensive! There has been many people already asking for us to come and paint spots so we have plenty to do; getting students there is harder.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I use mostly in my art work all the garbage scraps the kids throw out from my classroom. My mosaics are “painting with glass” figurative pieces that have deep meaning about parts of my life that scare me or have affected me. They explore death, loneliness, birth and other things that changed me in some way. My mosaics have won recently:
Best in Show 2025 Society of American Mosaic Artists
Most Outstanding Emerging Artist 2027 Contemporary Mosaic Artists of America
They have been in the Springville Art Museum Salon and museums in Florida, New York, New Mexico and Kansas.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Luck? Hmm–mostly just being thrown into things by accident has been the deciding factor in my life. People have asked me to do something and I jumped in because it sounded interesting. This had led me to trying new art forms, starting new classes and finding good friends that led me down weird paths. Is that luck?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jolynnforman.com
- Instagram: JolynnFormanArt
- Facebook: Jolynn Forman Art Page
