While Irmo resident Joe Javis gets paid for his commissioned artwork, he loves to draw South Carolina churches free of charge. "I usually draw and frame them, then early on Sunday mornings, I set them on the doorsteps of the church. My goal is to draw most of the churches in South Carolina, if not all of them. There’s a lot of churches," he admits with a grin.
Joe mostly draws animals, portraits, castles, babies, cars, houses and scenery. He's been drawing since he was 6 years old.
"I didn't know I could do it until one day I just did," he remembers. "People said my first couple of drawings were really good, however I kept the ones after that to myself because I didn't want to feel like I was bragging. Then, I realized drawing cartoons for kids could be inspiring and make them happy."
He received his first compensation for his art when he was a ripe old 12 years of age.
His artwork was recently displayed at the Irmo Branch Library on St. Andrews Road in Columbia, as well as the Lexington County Public Library.
While he used to also use charcoal to create sketches, he returned to only doing pencil renderings. "You can get so much detail with pencils. In fact, I spent 300 hours doing an Elvis sketch for a woman, with 3 hours on his lips alone. I want my drawings to look like you can touch and feel the details," he says.
Joe now receives drawing requests from around the globe. He's known locally for drawing cartoons or animals for fussy children in waiting lines, eliciting smiles instead of frowns as everyone searches for new ways to increase patience levels.
"I hope I'm motivating children to draw on their own," he confirms. For further details about his work, email joe.javis@yahoo.com.