When it comes to doing what you love, Joel Stanulonis is living his best life.
By day, he serves as an Assistant Professor in HCU鈥檚 Visual Arts department where he provides students with a strong foundation in artistic principles. In his spare time, he continues his work as a professional artist, balancing his academic role with his creative practice.
鈥淚鈥檓 very fortunate to be teaching at the college level in the studio [arts] area and continue to pursue painting and drawing. I鈥檝e had all kinds of wonderful adventures and privileges pursuing this as a career,鈥� shares Stanulonis.
A native of Alaska, his love for artistic expression was inspired by the beauty of creation and nature, and later by West Texas鈥檚 sparse desert landscape with its dramatic thunderstorms and dust storms. These diverse environments ignited his lifelong pursuit of art.
An HCU alumnus, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art in 2012 and a Master of Fine Arts from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia. He specializes in classical representational painting and teaches studio courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
His creative works have been exhibited internationally in Houston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Germany and Denmark. His artwork is part of the permanent collection at the PAFA Museum in Philadelphia. His talent has been recognized by New American Paintings, a prestigious juried exhibition in print, which featured his work on its cover. He was also twice a finalist for the Hunting Art Prize.
He also created a series of comic book illustrations depicting various scenes of campus life at HCU which were published in the Summer 2021 issue of The Pillars, the University鈥檚 official news magazine.
His greatest aim is to inspire the next generation of artists to also do what they love in bringing art to life and using their gifts to encourage others through their art.
鈥淚鈥檝e had lots of wonderful students over the years, many talented students, some much more talented than I am, who鈥檝e gone on to do great things,鈥� shared the proud HCU professor.
Recently, Stanulonis completed a two-year passion project鈥攈is debut children鈥檚 book, 鈥淲iggy Widget鈥檚 Marvelous Machines, Book 1.鈥� The framed images of the whimsical characters from his book line the walls of his office. This delightful story follows an elephant shrew named Wiggy Widget who solves his friends鈥� problems by designing fantastic machines. The 40-page book features vibrant illustrations and original cutaway drawings created by Stanulonis himself, appealing to young readers ages 5 to 12.