My name is Joy Marie Aingeal Aimhirghin Shannon and I am the vocalist and multi-instrumentalist frontwoman of Joy Shannon and the Beauty Marks. I am a mixed-media visual artist, writer and performer, over the years delving into printmaking, theatrical design, musical composition for theatre, performance art, acting, filmmaking, and cultural history research. I have used my music and art to discover and express who I am, so to tell you about it I always end up telling a brief part of my life story.
I lost my blood family to the wilds of substance & emotional abuse, and I struck out on my own both in life and in my art and music. Little by little I have made my own way, recording and releasing my albums, using my own artwork for my album covers, and directing my own music videos. Through the creative process I have not only found my voice but a community of enthusiastic and prolific artists and musicians that l collaborate with. To date, I have recorded a total of 12 studio albums as a solo artist, with the UK-based band the Offering, and the Southern California-based band the Beauty Marks. I have shown my expressive, figurative woodcuts and lino-cuts in countless art shows over the years and I just published my first book which was a non-fiction historical narrative called The First Counterculture Celebrity: Oscar Wilde’s 1882 North American Tour (Plain and Simple Books).
The Beauty Marks band evolved out of the solo music I was writing and performing since 2000. I had always longed to have a band, but I needed to know I could perform alone first so that I would never hide behind other musicians. Everything about pursuing my music has involved developing faith in myself and in the benevolent force behind this world, and I have truly experienced the “build it and they will come”
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