Jonelle T. McCoy, the artist and creator of the painting "Negra Feather" featured on the Paso Fino Horse Directory Home page for the month of February, 2010, grew up in Upstate NY where her innate talent to create was evidenced at an early age. She states her love of animals has always existed, and that they are the main focus of her drawings and paintings. As a child, she even made her own patterns for stuffed animals she sewed. It was her Hungarian great grandfather from whom she inherited her artistc inclination. In her words, " I thank my Hungarian great granddaddy for passing on the artistic genes to me, he is my guardian angel. His plain gray easel, spotted with his past smears, dots of painting, and little holes from pinning his reference materials to it is what I use; it makes me feel close to him. I still have some of his brushes, well-used, worn-out nubs that they are. One of my prized possessions is his pencil self portrait. His favorite story told over and over when we visited him was about Van Gogh."
As a teenager, Jonelle, took a picture of a horse out of a book, blew it up by hand on the back wall of her bedroom, and with paints found at home, recreated it on the back wall of her bedroom. Jonelle's only formal art education was a class she took at New York State Community College. The rest of her art education was learned "on the job." In the late 80's, she worked at "Adirondack Scenic, a local scenic shop, a job she began as a totally untrained apprentice scenic painter. Adirondack Scenic had many clients, big opera (Chicago and LA), amusement parks (Universal Studios in Florida for example), huge trade shows, and other live theater sets to name a few.
Jonelle's path continued in Oklahoma, where she moved to in 1991. After a couple of years in Oklahoma, she landed a job as a scenic painter at Oklahoma City University. On the side, she worked for a company called Silvertree that supplied Six Flags with dance and magic show props and scenery. She also did props and an occasional drop for a local "Event" company. In the mid-90's, Jonelle left Oklahoma City University and became "lead scenic" at Silvertree.
Included in her body of work is the movie "Twister," on which she worked as a scenic artist, assigned to the aunt's house in the movie, which was done in Wakita, Oklahoma. Then she worked in Guthrie, Oklahoma on the drive-in theater and garage scene; maybe many of you remember that one. The other area of the movie Twister she worked on was in an airplane hanger in Norman, Oklahoma where the cave-in floor of the aunt's house was done, as well as the house that the truck drove up into and through. Jonelle says of this movie experience that it was a lot of fun, though very demanding with long hours. Today you will find this artist still at work part-time with "Eventures, Inc.
All during this time, throughout most of her career, Jonelle has always had horses….though she may have started out with quarterhorses, she ended up with PASO FINOS! Discovered by chance, this unique and wonderful breed, the Paso Fino, has become the mainstay in her life and in her heart.
For visual delights of Jonelle's artwork, click on: http://www.pasofinohorsedirectory.com/Forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1380&page=1#Item_14
