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Joelle’s Outpouring	Victoria Scrimer
When the cold beer is flowing, the music is blaring, and you’re sitting with good friends you could be at just about any bar in Fredericksburg, but chances are you aren’t spending a whole lot of time thinking about the personal life of your bartender. That of course is a good thing. If you are thinking about your bartender too much it usually means you are sitting in front of an empty glass. An overdue refill is certainly never the case when Joelle Cathleen is working the bar at the Colonial Tavern. Her service philosophy, which coincides nicely with my drinking philosophy, is that bringing on the beverages should be a seamless process that the customer never has to think about. If you’ve ever been to a popular bar where you have to claw your way to the top of a swarming human mass to get a Guiness, you know this seamlessness is not achieved without great skill on the part of your bartender. It is a shame though that we don’t know more about our servers. In many ways they are the lifeblood of downtown Fredericksburg. Their faces are so familiar and their welcome so friendly you tend to forget you don’t know them at all. Oftentimes they are poised to contribute more to the culture of downtown than you know. Such is the case with Joelle. She has been bartending in downtown Fredericksburg since Orbitz met its fate and the Colonial Tavern opened in its place four years ago. Prior to slinging drinks at Colonial Tavern, Joelle worked at Carlos O’Kellys in Stafford, her hometown, for an impressive thirteen years. But what she usually doesn’t tell her customers is that even before she discovered her love for providing excellent service this 34 year old discovered her creative spirit and love for art. As a child she would illustrate for fun, making cartoons and sketches for friends and family. Largely self taught, she remembers being intimidated by painting until 1999 when she went back to school at what was then Mary Washington College after earning her Associates degree in Studio Art from Nova in Woodbridge. She had planned to pursue a BLS in Sociology, but by the end of her first semester she returned to Studio Art and through her classes found the self-confidence to pick up oil painting, a medium she embraces today. As a BLS student and commuter, Joelle who was then 25 faced a little bit of loneliness and exclusion that many commuter students at Mary Wash experience. However, her chance to show her work at the campus gallery for her Senior art show, which many BLS students don’t get to do, was well worth pursuing. Since then her art has been displayed all over downtown; in Pearl (what is now the Bourbon Room), Brock’s, La Petit, and most supportively at the Sunken Well. In her own words it has been a goal to see her work hang at Bistro Bethem and luckily for Bistro customers June marks the achievement of Joelle’s aim and we’ll have a chance to see, experience, and purchase her work over the next two months. Why Bistro? Joelle says it is the place to hang art downtown. According to the artist the restaurant atmosphere is more welcoming than the gallery scene downtown and comes with none of the hoops and ladders required by many galleries such as gallery time, commissions or fees. It is truly a welcoming place for local artists. Not to mention the fun Monday art openings Bistro hosts when a new artist hangs their work. Her richly colored paintings are inspired by her childhood on a Maryland horse farm and are sure to intrigue diners and art seekers alike. Although visitors will recognize at least one of her prints, “Train Bridge” from the scenery downtown, the theme of trees permeates her work. For Joelle the branches of trees are like humans with “arms extended, intertwined” and they represent gathering and interconnectedness. Far from paying homage to darkness or death she says her often leafless trees are individuals “like snowflakes” and that “painting a bare tree is like painting a nude. You are capturing the pure form”. She hopes her show, and all art for that matter, will be a sort of therapy session for those who visit. She encourages the viewer to ask themselves how they feel about the painting, why they like it or perhaps why they don’t and what does that reveal to them about their own thoughts and feelings. I suggest coming out to Joelle’s Art Opening at Bistro Bethem on Monday evening, June 9th. Have some free snacks and enjoy a glass of vino from Bistro’s extensive wine list (hint: it may ease the difficulty of the art therapy self analysis). She will have paintings and signed giclee prints available for sale as well as display. The beautiful artwork, its organic and introspective message, and a community of local art lovers are sure to make for a fantastic nighttime activity. If you miss the art opening don’t despair. Joelle’s paintings will remain on display at Bistro Bethem for the next two months. A true “starving artist”, this longtime bartender’s art displays inspiring creativity and imagination that lies often unrecognized beneath the surface of her sublimely subliminal food and drink service. Bottom line, you just never know what talent is quietly biding its time behind the daily grind before it finally appears on the local radar. It could be a bus boy with an easel on an inconspicuous street corner or, like Joelle Cathleen, a painter serving sudsy mugs to locals, but if you’re in Fredericksburg I’m willing to bet fresh, new talent is closer than you think. Victoria Scrimer is a patron of the downtown arts and pubs.
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