ABSTRACT
The artistic practice of Joanna Margaret Paul (1945–2003), a painter and poet of Atearoa/New Zealand, illustrates how attentiveness to, and wonder at, the many ordinary things of life can inform art. This essay shows how the transfixing effects of such wonder generates an ethical sensitivity towards the world. Paul sought to communicate this sensitivity, in both her poetry and her painting, as an interconnectedness within the familiar arrangements and silences of her everyday life. A prolific painter and poet who worked in several media, Paul attempted to not to represent everyday objects as they were, but to convey her emotional response to everyday surroundings.
