Jocelyn Vache, pronounced Vahsh, (b. 1976, Fall River, MA, USA) focuses on the use of sustainable materials and acts of community engagement. Her work both confronts societal double standards and seeks common ground through illuminating human blind spots and glorifying quotidian acts of nature. Vache earned a BA with a film studies concentration and minors in studio art and French from the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, in Amherst, MA; an MEd from the University of Massachusetts - Boston in Boston, MA; and, a DELF, 1er degree, from the Collège International de Cannes in Cannes, France. She is licensed to teach secondary visual art, French, and technology, among others in the state of Massachusetts, and holds LEED Green accreditation from the United States Green Building Council (USBGC). The artist has participated in exhibitions at the Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA; Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA; Tiernan Hallway Gallery, Art League of RI, Pawtucket, RI; Warwick Center for Fine Arts, Warwick, RI; and True Grit Art Gallery, Middleboro, MA. She regularly participates in annual street painting festivals including Harvard Square’s Oktoberfest, Cambridge, MA; Onset Street Painting Festival, Wareham, MA; Foxboro Street Painting Festival, Foxboro, MA; and Heart in Art Chalk Fest, Middleboro, MA. She spoke on a two-person panel at the Building Brave Spaces: Mobilizing Teen Arts Education conference at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, MA in 2019. In 2025, Vache was awarded a juror’s award for her painting “Wet Bistro” in the exhibition Reign Rain Rein at the Attleboro Arts Museum. Her art appears on the cover of the album Noise & Poise by Raphvael, released in May 2025. Also in 2025, she was interviewed by Fibre Arts Take Two (Australia) about transitioning from metals and acrylics to pigment in soy on cloth. She has earned several first and second place awards at the Onset Street Painting Festival in Onset, MA and the Heart in Art Chalk Fest in Middleboro, MA. Vache currently lives and works in and around Boston, MA and Providence, RI. She also teaches Fabrication Lab classes and supports urban gardening in the Boston Public Schools.
Bio
Artist Statement
Through painting in soy on fiber and chalk pastel drawing on sidewalk, I interpret the contexts, beliefs, and behaviors of living beings, sentient and otherwise. I wonder about our collective existence and the intersections it contains. To convey my questioning that calls attention to injustice and beauty, I abstract and combine literal and figurative imagery focusing on the environment, current events, and my personal experience.
My education led me to work in metalsmithing and acrylic painting; however, my commitment to anti-mining campaigns disrupted my practice. I now will only use these on the rare occasion where I acquire them secondhand to divert them from the waste stream. In using my own homegrown and foraged pigment and fiber, I feel aligned in my life through art making, gardening, and my teaching of both.
I also engage in street painting festivals. They are a fleeting community of collective creativity, where the participants leave no physical trace as their art is surrendered to the earth by weather and time. I capitalize on these public forums to prompt observers’ reflection and connection through the images I lay down on the asphalt. I enjoy engaging with the audience while creating. I consistently get direct feedback from the public that my images challenge them to reconsider their assumptions and appreciate overlooked beauty in the world.
Art reflects and drives culture. Poor practices and attitudes can be untaught, in art and in life. Through visually exposing the systems, structures, and ethics of human activity and nature's response or ambivalence, I hope to trigger self reflection and validate the positive forces within us. I enjoyed working in silver. I saw others do it before me. I assumed it was an acceptable practice. Encountering truth facilitated me to change my actions. As a result, I gave up something I loved doing because the act of love in not doing it was more impactful. Humans are complex. We waver from victim to aggressor depending on context. Art can move us to transformation and to be better versions of ourselves. Through my paintings and drawings, I aim to do no harm, question the harm I perceive being done, and amplify the innate beauty and good I see in the world.
Current & Upcoming Exhibitions
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Cambridge Rotary's Chalk on the Walk at Oktoberfest, Harvard Square Cambridge, MA
*One day only: October 12, 2025
Nine-Eighteen-Nine Studio Gallery, Innovations in Fibers, Charlotte, NC; through September 27, 2025
True Grit Art Gallery, Poetic Visions, Middleboro, MA; through September 27, 2025​​​​
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Gallery X, Touch Tank, New Bedford, MA; through September 27, 2025
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Aplomb Gallery, Rising, Dover, NH; through September 30, 2025
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Boston City Hall, 6th Annual Exhibit of The National Arts Program, Boston, MA; through October 24, 2025
*Juror's Award Recipient: Second Place, Professional Category
Recent Exhibitions
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2025 Gallery X, Public Xhibition 36, New Bedford, MA
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2025 River's Edge Pop-Up Art Show, Somerset, MA
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2025 Warwick Center for Fine Arts, Dimensions: Contemporary Fiber Arts, Warwick, RI
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2025 Attleboro Arts Museum, Reign Rain Rein, Attleboro, MA
*Juror's Award Recipient
2025 Piano Craft Gallery, BPS Arts, Boston, MA
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2025 Tiernan Hallway Gallery, Art League of RI, Symphony in Fiber, Pawtucket, RI
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2025 Attleboro Arts Museum, Flower Show, Attleboro, MA
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2024-5 Attleboro Arts Museum, Members' Exhibition, Attleboro, MA
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2024-5 True Grit Art Gallery, Small Wonders, Middleboro, MA
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2024 Attleboro Arts Museum, Flower Show, Attleboro, MA
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2024 Piano Craft Gallery, BPS Arts, Boston, MA
Public Art
2025 Empathy Now, Onset Street Painting Festival, Onset, MA
*Theme Winner "Make a Beautiful World"
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2025 Venus Fly Traps, Heart in Art Chalk Fest, Middleboro, MA
*Second Place Recipient
2024 Autumn Seed Pods, Cambridge Rotary's Chalk on the Walk, Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA
2024 Haunting, Onset Street Painting Festival, Onset, MA
2023 The Guardian No. 2, Onset Street Painting Festival, Onset, MA
2021 Trees Are Lungs, Onset Street Painting Festival, Wareham, MA
2019 Sea Turtle Tessellations, Onset Street Painting Festival, Onset, MA
2019 Wish You Were Here, Foxboro Street Painting Festival, Foxboro, MA
2018 Compost Your TV, Onset Street Painting Festival, Onset, MA
2017 Fibonacci Components, Onset Street Painting Festival, Onset, MA
2016 Stand Back, Onset Street Painting Festival, Onset, MA
*Second Place Recipient
2015 Stag Beetle in Palm, Onset Street Painting Festival, Onset, MA
*First Place Recipient
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Collaborations​
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