Singer, Poetess, Actress and Photographer Demetra Jonvere Artis,
better known in the poetry world as Jonvee, was born May 17, 1958 in Washington
DC to Margaret E Artis and Richard Blandon a well known Doo Wop singer and
recording artist. Jonvee,
raised by her Mom and Grandparents was
always a gifted child especially with drawing. She grew up singing in her gospel choir and
would spend hours sitting in her window sill writing short stories. She was only thirteen when she entered
an art contest and people showed up at her door wanting her to attend their
school of arts, which at the time her family just could not afford. She
attended Johnson Jr. High School in S.E. Washington, DC where she excelled in
singing and running track. She even acted in a couple of plays for drama class. Where she excelled in
extracurriculars she failed in classwork. Some of her teachers
considered her to be to slow.
For as long as she could remember she had heard this and it cut
deep inside her mentally. No
matter how hard she tried she just could not keep up so she gave up. She dropped out of school, got married
and had her first child all at the age of seventeen. Life was hard with her husband money
was tight and the family grew. She tried to pursue other careers such as
modeling for magazines such as Sears and JC Penny’s but there were many road
blocks and it wasn’t easy, so she decided to stay put and be a stay at home mom
only taking jobs when things got tight. She
taught her children to read and write and realized that if she could teach her
children to read, write and recite poetry all before they started school how
slow could she be. So when
her youngest child was in high school she told him that she would graduate
before he did. That she did
with very high grade point averages in history and science. On an academic roll she attended
Strartford Career Institute for Interior Decorating and later went on to
Sheffield School of interior Design where she received her Certificate of
Graduation from both schools.
In 2007 Jonvee went back to school classes attending P.G. College
in Maryland. She is an
amateur photographer and is now thinking of taking those photography
classes. Jonvee turned
fifty in 2008 and does not have any plans of slowing down. She says Life is just beginning and
it’s never too late to try. She
is still singing and recording her poetry and has done poetry readings for
UNESSCO Center for Peace Arts Festival and other poetry readings for women’s
church groups etc.
She has many offers on the table right now but decided to get her
recording out first. She’s
Looking forward to performing her works in the future. Not bad for a girl that
they say was to slow. Now
Jonvee is taking private photos for couples and working with other artist promoting
their work. Recording her poetry has been a long time coming with the
upcoming release “Moma’s Wildflower” and another due out in the summer of 2013.
When they say better late then never this sure does apply to
Jonvee
To visit Jonvee on CD Baby CLICK HERE
or
To Visit Jonvee on Facebook CLICK HERE
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