About Jolene
Off course. On purpose.
I'm Jolene Dames, an artist, writer, and visual storyteller living with a home base in Pittsburgh. I read rooms, people, and the space between them, and I help people find their way when life knocks them off course.
I know that territory well.
Where It Started
I grew up moving around. New houses, new schools, new rules. The one thing I could bring with me every time was art. It gave me common ground wherever I landed, and it became both a way out and a way through.
At twenty, with no experience at all, I started painting sets. Twenty-five years later, I've built worlds for film, television, and theater as a scenic artist, set designer, and set decorator, and worked across 38 countries along the way.
Avengers · The Dark Knight Rises · A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood · A League of Their Own · Unstoppable · The Chair · Jack Reacher · Mindhunter
You've probably seen my work without knowing it was mine.
What the Sets Taught Me
Every set is a story. Every surface holds emotion.
Nothing on set is accidental. Building worlds for the screen taught me to read space as a language, not a backdrop: how light and shadow shape feeling, how color carries mood, how the smallest detail can tell the largest truth. I learned to see what an audience feels before they know they're feeling it.
When the Compass Went Off Course
I met my husband, Patrick, on a film production. We were inseparable from that day on. He died just after our sixth wedding anniversary.
He was the best decision I ever made. The worst heartbreak I ever had.
Losing him took my sense of direction. I could read any room on a set, but I couldn't read my own life. Finding my way back took a long time, and it didn't happen in a straight line. That journey became Skewed North, my memoir series and the story underneath everything I do now.
What I Do Now
I write. Panic Quietly, the first book in the Skewed North series, is on its way, and I share the story as it unfolds on Substack.
I make art. I make paintings, assemblages, and collages from my own photographs, and I also commission pieces from yours: a place, a person, a moment you don't want to lose.
I teach and create with community. I design murals, scenic spaces, and hands-on workshops with kids and neighborhoods, and then I hand over the brushes. The kids call me Miss Jolene. I let go of my own design so the wall becomes theirs, because the point is to leave people better than you found them: more confident, more connected, and proud of something they made together. I also lead workshops, artist talks, and participatory art experiences for groups of all ages.
And I help people get oriented. My Orientation Sessions bring together decades of trained looking and years of study: a degree integrating storytelling, psychology, and aesthetics, plus certifications in feng shui, life coaching, therapeutic art, and neuroaesthetics. The sessions are intuitive, practical, and grounded in noticing what's hiding in plain sight.
Space as mirror. Story as compass. Self as home.