Stranger Fruit and Saint are stained-glass windows by Jokeeta Johnson Savariau. She survived a bout with cervical cancer before launching a third career as an artist whose work, she says, “tells a story; it speaks the truth.”
There’s a saying that “art imitates life.” If true, then the life of Jokeeta Johnson Savariau—popularly known as simply “Jokeeta”—would be represented by quite a mosaic.
The bits and pieces of that mosaic would include her growing up in Maryland with strong Black women in her life. And earning a college degree in athletic training only to later become an aviation software engineer. And surviving a bout with cervical cancer, which led to art as a therapeutic hobby and a third career as an artist. And maintaining a passion for missionary work, which would be manifested through bold and spirited imagery.
Whether in mosaic form—the genre is her most recent specialty—or in her stained glass, the result would be unexpected and quintessential Jokeeta. And to think, Jokeeta’s art world didn’t take shape until after that 2017 cancer diagnosis, which required surgery. As a result of the surgery, she experienced paralysis and had to learn to walk again.
Following her recovery, on a trip to Italy with husband Ancel Savariau, she tried glass blowing just for fun. When the physicality of glass blowing didn’t work for her, she tried stained glass, thanks to a beginner’s class in Orlando. Voila!
“I really admired stained glass all of my life growing up in the Washington, D.C. area with all the cathedrals and the beautiful luminescence that comes through the light. It just wowed me. So, I got into it, and I loved it,” says Jokeeta, now a resident of Clermont.
Then, surprisingly, people began returning the love. “Every time I created a piece,” she adds, “somebody wanted it, and I’m like, ‘OK, I’m really good.’”
Today, Jokeeta is in her 29th year as a software engineer in Melbourne. She also continues mostly youth-oriented international missionary work that began in 2005 while she creates mosaics and stained-glass pieces commissioned by individuals and corporate clients.
Jokeeta has a space in Spark The Arts Studios in Downtown Orlando. (Spark the Arts is a collaboration between United Arts of Central Florida and Highwood Properties that transforms commercial spaces into art studios and galleries.)
One of her most notable works is an 8-foot mosaic sculpture at Orlando’s St. John’s Baptist Church. Her work has also been shown at the Orange County Administration Building and Orlando City Hall.
Many of Jokeeta’s pieces are unique, dissimilar. Yet, their purposes are much the same. “I see my stained glass as a quilt,” she says. “I see my pieces being put together to make something great. Things that are different, things that are textured, things that tell a story. My stained glass tells a story; it speaks the truth. It speaks to people historically. It speaks to people’s creatively.”
For more information, visit Spark The Arts Studios at 300 South Orange Avenue, Suite 150 on the first floor of the Bank of America building (across from the Grand Bohemian). You can also view her work online at stainedglassbyjokeetta.com.
