Judy Joy Jones is an artist, photographer, author, poet, actress and librettist.  She won ‘Brava for Women in the Arts’ contest in San Francisco with an opera libretto based on the life of painter Frida Kahlo and her muralist husband Diego Rivera.  She wrote for the Coronado Journal newspaper as she traveled around the world doing volunteer work with Mother Teresa’s Missionary of Charities and while on the Great Peace March for Nuclear Disarmament.           

Her first book, The Bones of the Homeless, is filled with stark black and white images of the homeless alongside ‘in your face’ poems concerning the plight of the poor.  The poems and photographs have been published in newspapers and books around the world.     

      Terry Messman, editor of The Street Spirit Newspaper, Berkeley, California commented on Joy’s writing:  

           “I have often placed a poem of Joy’s on the front page of my newspaper as her      writing helps reveal the realities of homelessness at a depth surpassing many of our news articles on the same subject.  The eloquence of Joy’s poetry and fiery intensity of her lyrical and emotional outcry for kindness and justice has moved thousands of readers.”   

          Her first spoken word/music CD, “Ode to Janis Joplin,” was recorded by Curtis Ohlson, Ray Charles’ bass player, in Oakland, California. 

            The National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. has images of Joy’s art in their library archives and the Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur, Texas, houses her painting of Janis Joplin.       

          Mother Teresa painting by Judy can be found in the book, Global Icons, by Bishnupriya Ghosh and was also used on a prayer card to enlist the intercession of Mother Teresa in order to save the life of a three-year old child dying of leukemia.     

         Her artistic recognition reached new heights with her Judy Joy Jones Show, a radio program she founded, produced, directed and hosted from 2008-2011, presenting over 160 shows including such notables as Dr. Maya Angelou, Civil Rights Attorney Gloria Allred, Physicist Dr. Michio Kaku, Dr. Masaru Emoto of film What the Bleep Do We Know!, Casey Swanson of Dailey Swan Publishing, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, Arun Gandhi, White House Correspondent Helen Thomas and Rita Graham, Ray Charles protégé.      

        Dr. Maya Angelou commented on Red Room Authors after being a guest on the Show. “My fellow Red Room Author, Judy Joy Jones, interviewed me not long ago.  The Red Room editors featured a new podcast of the interview on their homepage.”  

      The Blessed Mother Teresa Center houses an article written by Judy Joy Jones about her volunteer work for Mother Teresa’s Missionary of Charities in Washington, D.C.