A native of Dayton, Ohio, Joel David Holsinger has been painting and drawing prolifically since early childhood. A Scholastic Arts award-winning portfolio finalist, Joel graduated in 1996 with a degree in Fine Art, studying Graphic Design and Painting at Miami University (of Oxford, Ohio) on a full-tuition scholarship awarded annually by the Gibson Greetings Foundation. After initially working as a graphic designer and art instructor, Joel moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1998 to further his career where he began painting full time as a fine artist. An emerging abstract painter, he continues to develop and refine his distinctive artistic vocabulary and style, building on an early foundation of work done in a more traditional manner. Beneath the surface, the focus of his work is philosophical and spiritual. His paintings and drawings, whether abstract or traditional, are inspired by principles of timeless truth, beauty, wisdom, and love. Many of his subjects are drawn from landscapes, architecture, classical literature, music, and world history, synthesized with many contemporary influences. Joel enjoys his elective time with his family and close friends, reading, studying, writing, sketching, traveling, playing the piano, and spending time in the great outdoors. Seeing the world in an abstract manner has been a result of a punctuated process, developing slowly out of a variety of experiences and studying traditional painting. Such influences include visiting various art museums, galleries, and studios containing collections of contemporary work, learning from colleagues and art instructors, teaching artistic principles and elements, developing a distinctive artistic vocabulary, and most of all, by observing abstractions in God’s Creation. Holsinger enjoys demonstrating through his work and in conversation the often overlooked relationship between the “real” and the “abstract” in art. He continues to delight in studying, learning, exploring, and discovering new insights as an artist, always looking forward to his next painting.