Painted Utility Boxes: Yelena Joy's four boxes

Painted utility box: Red Poppies by Yelena Joy, 2012. Located on Calle Guanajuato.

29 Jul Painted Utility Boxes: Yelena Joy’s four boxes

Posted at 08:20h in Art, Downtown, Public Art, Railroad District by Peter Finkle 1 Comment

On Calle Guanajuato and A Street.

Artist Yelena Joy.

Ashland Public Art series.

Published July 2024.

“My childhood dream was to become an author, coach and illustrator. I am now living this dream and evoking new creations as I go.”
Yelena Joy

Yelena Joy’s journey: from art to medical school

Yelena Joy was born in Omsk, Russia. She began drawing from the time she could hold a pencil.

Growing up, she loved creating art. Even before she finished high school, she was offered a scholarship to an art academy in Moscow. Elated, Yelena came home to tell her family – and ran into a wall. Her mother, an engineer, dismissed artists as “drug addicts” and convinced Yelena to be practical and go to medical school. Obeying her mother, she became a pediatrician in Russia.

Ironically, it was her artistic skills that got her into medical school. The entrance exam required students to answer several physiology or biology questions in detail, then present the answers to a professor for review and discussion. One question was something like, “describe the digestive systems and biology of a bird.” For that question, rather than write an essay, Yelena illustrated all of the biological systems of the bird in great detail, as she remembered them from the text book. When she brought her “answers” to the professor – all of them illustrations – he just looked at them, looked at her, and said “Okay.” No long discussion; in fact, no discussion at all. She was in! And thankful for her artistic skills and passion.

Yelena Joy’s journey: from Russia to America

Yelena lived in Russia, practiced medicine, and had a son. As her son grew older, she worried that President Putin of Russia would start a war and her son would become cannon fodder for the cause. She carried internal scars from her teenage years, when many young men a couple years older who had graduated from her school came home in coffins during Russia’s war in Afghanistan. This made a deep emotional impression that she has never forgotten. As it turned out, she was right in her intuition regarding a new Russian war that might have involved her son.

She considered several possible countries to move to, then chose the USA. She and her son moved to California in 2001, when he was ten years old, settling in the Santa Cruz area. While continuing to work in the medical field to support the family (though not as a doctor), she always created art as well.

Yelena Joy’s journey: living in Ashland

**Yelena Joy painting in her Ashland studio in 2013.** (photo courtesy of Yelena Joy)

Due to a new relationship, she moved to Ashland in 2012. Wherever Yelena has lived, she has always found the art community. So during her three years living in Ashland, she had a studio at the Ashland Art Center downtown. She also painted four of our public art utility boxes between 2012 and 2014. As happens in life, the relationship didn’t last and she moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area – but her love of Ashland remains.

Here are the four utility boxes she painted, which are part of the city’s Public Art collection:

On Calle Guanajuato (pink poppy and other flowers) Painted in 2014

The iris painted on this utility box was based on a previous painting of Yelena’s.

Yelena Joy, iris painted on canvas; model for a 2012 painted utility box. — **Yelena Joy, iris painted on canvas; model for a 2014 painted utility box.** (courtesy of Yelena Joy)

Painted utility box: top and side of Pink Poppy by Yelena Joy, 2012. Located in Calle Guanajuato. — **Painted utility box: showing the Iris and the Pink Poppy, by Yelena Joy, 2014. Located in Calle Guanajuato**. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2021)

Painted utility box: overview of Pink Poppy by Yelena Joy, 2012; also shows Calle Guanajuato. — **Painted utility box: overview of Pink Poppy by Yelena Joy, 2014; also shows Calle Guanajuato**. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2024)

On Calle Guanajuato (red poppies) Painted in 2014

This one started as a painting of poppies on a canvas (see image). As you can see, Yelena made changes as she painted the design on the utility box.

Yelena Joy, poppies painted on canvas; model for the 2012 painted utility box — **Yelena Joy, poppies painted on canvas; model for the 2014 painted utility box**. (courtesy of Yelena Joy)

Painted utility box: detail of Red Poppies by Yelena Joy, 2012. Located on Calle Guanajuato. — **Painted utility box: detail of Red Poppies by Yelena Joy, 2014. Located on Calle Guanajuato**. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2021)

Painted utility box: overview of Red Poppies by Yelena Joy, 2012; also shows Calle Guanajuato. — **Painted utility box: overview of Red Poppies by Yelena Joy, 2014; also shows Calle Guanajuato**. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2021)

On Calle Guanajuato (tropical flowers) Painted in 2014

Painted utility box: overview of tropical flowers by Yelena Joy, 2012. Located in Calle Guanajuato. — **Painted utility box: overview of tropical flowers by Yelena Joy, 2014. Located in Calle Guanajuato**. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2024)

Painted utility box: tropical flowers by Yelena Joy, 2012. Located in Calle Guanajuato. — **Painted utility box: top and side of tropical flowers by Yelena Joy, 2014. Located in Calle Guanajuato.** (photo by Peter Finkle, 2024)

Painted utility box: detail of tropical flowers by Yelena Joy, 2012. Located in Calle Guanajuato. — **Painted utility box: detail of tropical flowers by Yelena Joy, 2014. Located in Calle Guanajuato.** (photo by Peter Finkle, 2024)

At the corner of A Street and Oak Street (colorful abstract) Painted in 2014-2015

Abstract painted utility box, by Yelena Joy. — **Abstract painted utility box on A Street at Oak Street, painted by Yelena Joy**. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2021)

You will notice that three of her utility box designs are composed of poppies and tropical flowers. She laughed as she said, “This was during a flower period in my life. I submitted the designs and I got selected, and it was fun.”

Here is a fond memory from when she was painting a box on Calle Guanajuato: “One of the restaurant owners offered me a free dinner as a thank you for beautifying the Calle. It was sweet. I have yet to take him up on his offer, and now I forgot his name or the restaurant… But I felt appreciated and valued for creating beauty.”

Her fourth utility box design is an abstract. Creating that piece actually surprised her. She has been drawn to realistic painting all of her life. In a way, realism was “safe” because you could compare the painting with the person or object being painted. Abstract art, with nothing to compare to, was always challenging for her, but in recent years she has enjoyed experimenting with new approaches to her art.

Yelena Joy’s journey: an artistic, intuitive life

Yelena has been intuitive since childhood, but her understanding of the gift has grown. She now draws deeply upon intuition in her artwork and also her coaching, as people come to her to learn about creating both art and more fulfillment in their lives. Her gifts help her students connect with their own intuition and guidance.

“Creativity opens people up to themselves.”
Yelena Joy

As Yelena and I talked about life and art, she got philosophical – but in a practical way. She described being caught up and limited at times by her identity as a “physician” or “someone who works at Stanford.” As with so much of life, there is a balance. You don’t “have to” be connected with your inner Self to find some success in life, but finding that connection brings deeper joy and fulfillment. For Yelena, art is one of the primary ways one can open up to experience more of the joy and peace of the inner Self.

Here are three examples of her current artwork.