Joy to the World Too 36" x 48"

James Nowak’s Joy to the World Too, a companion to his earlier Joy to the World and part of the broader Colors of Joy Collection, exemplifies his sustained engagement with color as both subject and medium. While the first piece exuded dense, celebratory energy, Joy to the World Too adopts a more expansive composition, allowing breathing space between brushstrokes. This creates a dialogue not just between colors, but between presence and absence—between fullness and openness.

One of the most striking differences in this painting is its sense of spatial openness. Where Joy to the World layered color densely toward the center, Joy to the World Too distributes its patches across the canvas, creating a rhythm that is less musical crescendo and more communal chorus. The brushstrokes retain their urgency, but the spacing allows the eye to wander more freely, finding unexpected harmonies in negative space.

This openness reflects a different kind of joy—less of an outburst, more of a gathering. The painting reads as a field of possibilities, where joy manifests not as a singular, overpowering force, but as a shared, distributed presence.

The palette here is wider and subtler than its predecessor. Alongside primary reds, yellows, and blues, Nowak introduces lavender, pinks, oranges, and soft turquoise. This expanded spectrum creates a more nuanced emotional register, balancing exuberance with delicacy.

The yellow and orange bursts inject warmth and vitality, while the cooler blues and greens offer grounding calmness. Red remains a recurring anchor, but its presence is softened by surrounding shades, functioning less as a dramatic center and more as part of a democratic interplay. Together, the colors suggest not just joy, but joy refracted—fragmented, multiplied, and shared.

The gestural brushstrokes continue Nowak’s dialogue with abstract expressionism, echoing both the spontaneity of action painting and the lyrical sensibility of color field work. Unlike the aggressive layering of de Kooning, however, Nowak’s marks are celebratory rather than confrontational. Each brushstroke appears as an offering, a declaration of presence, a fragment of joy set loose in a larger atmosphere.

The atmosphere created here is lighter, more aerial than in the earlier work. The blues that dominate the background suggest sky or sea—expanses without boundaries—while the interspersed colors evoke blossoms, fireworks, or even fragments of stained glass. This imagistic openness invites viewers into a contemplative, almost meditative relationship with joy.

Where Joy to the World asserted joy as a bold, central proclamation, Joy to the World Too reframes it as dialogue—between colors, between gestures, between viewer and canvas. The plural “Too” in the title suggests inclusivity: an extension of joy, a recognition that celebration is not solitary but collective. The painting embodies this inclusivity by refusing hierarchy among colors; each hue is given room to shine, none dominating overlong.

This gesture resonates with Nowak’s broader vision in the Colors of Joy Collection—that color is a universal language, accessible across culture and context. Here, the joy is less explosive, more conversational, less a statement than an invitation.

James Nowak’s Joy to the World Too builds upon and transforms the exuberance of its predecessor. While retaining the vibrancy and spontaneity that define the Colors of Joy Collection, it opens the composition, broadens the palette, and reframes joy as a shared, distributed, and inclusive experience.

If Joy to the World was a solo voice raised in song, Joy to the World Too is a chorus—many colors, many voices, held together in harmony. In doing so, Nowak not only expands the emotional scope of the collection but also affirms the transformative power of color to articulate what words cannot: that joy, in its truest form, belongs to everyone.