Joyce Asay Maken

by Holly Strother
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 2:49 PM MST

The murals at Sunburst Lodge on Casper Mountain depict the four seasons through recognizable Wyoming landscapes, a landscape that artist Joyce Asay Maken said feels just like home.

The Maryland-born painter grew up in New Jersey. A trip to the uranium fields for her husband’s work brought the city girl face to face with rugged Wyoming and its dicey weather.

“I loved it; it felt like I had come home,” Maken said. “I never fit in in Jersey.”

She had been a stay at home mom for her two boys until moving here in 1978.

When she arrived in Wyoming, she said that she found most wives worked. She entered the job market by becoming a screen printer with Winner’s Circle and eventually becoming its head artist.

Maken later formed her own screen printing company, Willow Screen printing, which contracted with other companies for its work.

Maken said she found her love of art while in grade school.

“I did a little sculpture of a tree, and the teacher put it on her desk because she liked it, and that was it,” she said. “From that point on, art was my major thing.”

Maken started taking classes at the Philadelphia School of Art after finishing high school, but did not stay to complete a degree. She needed to find work to support herself, so she hired out to do artwork for Macmillan Publishing and painted store windows.

After getting married she stopped painting for 10 years, but picked it back up and began getting involved with art leagues back East.

Art once again was forced to take a back seat when the oilfield beckoned and Maken found herself working as a mud logger for about six months. She then transferred into the position of office manager for Greatland Directional Drilling.

It wasn’t until she moved to Cody for four years that she started painting again.

When Maken got to Casper, she began to work with fine art through the Casper Artists’ Guild and weekly workshops with a group of local artists and Erma Stolt. At that point, her fine art work was successful and accepted to some regional shows.

She branched out from fine art to home décor in 1991, through a suggestion from a friend.

“A friend of mine sent me a newspaper clipping and said I should be doing this, and it was faux finishing,” Maken said.

She looked into it, and found classes at The Finishing School in Long Island, N.Y.

She began a company out of her home that offered different texturing techniques, marble effects and trompe l'oeil scenes.

She opened her current design studio, called Paint Finishes, on the top floor of Mossholders Furniture. Paint Finishes can be reached at 333-5955.

Maken currently lives in Casper with her husband Doug. They have a large family: three sons, Sam and Dave Knight and their wives, and Gerry Maken. They share numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Maken’s work can be seen during business hours at Mossholders Furniture, Poor Boys Restaurant, the Wonder Bar and Sunburst Lodge Bed and Breakfast.

Call 235-9086 in advance to view her murals at the lodge.

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