February 27, 2003 - The Oregonian: Ethiopia RPCV Jennifer Joyce is a founding member of Artback Artists Co-operative
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February 27, 2003 - The Oregonian: Ethiopia RPCV Jennifer Joyce is a founding member of Artback Artists Co-operative
Ethiopia RPCV Jennifer Joyce is a founding member of Artback Artists Co-operative
Read and comment on this story from the Oregonian on Ethiopia RPCV Jennifer Joyce who is is a founding member of that community's Artback Artists Co-operative and who is now holding an exhibition of her work at the gallery at:
For art's sake*
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For art's sake
02/27/03
STEVEN AMICK
ESTACADA -- Jennifer Joyce's newest paintings are full of whimsy: a heart-shaped exit from a cave, viewed from the inside; a winged, heart-shaped moon face smiling on a snowy forest; an enigmatic, foliage-covered hand sporting strange symbols on its fingertips.
There is nothing whimsical about Joyce's commitment to art, however. It is her work, her passion, her way of interpreting the world, the ground in which she grows. That's why this 60-year-old woman, married and with two adult children, works so diligently to cultivate that patch of ground -- for herself and for other artists.
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An Estacadan since 1972, Joyce is a founding member of that community's Artback Artists Co-operative and a former member of the Estacada Arts Commission, which she also helped found. She is a prolific muralist whose works, both as an individual and in collaboration with other painters, adorn public and private buildings throughout Oregon. Nine of those murals, Artback's annual civic projects, are in Estacada. More than 40 more were done in public schools.
A former artist in the schools, since 1991 Joyce also has been a freelance painter for the McMenamins chain of brewpubs, theaters and hotels. She has painted pictures on everything from ceilings to steam pipes, fuse boxes to brewing equipment. She has done a lot of decorative painting, such as painting doors and creating borders and other wall and ceiling art. And she has created fliers, menus and brochures for the chain.
Evolving art "I've learned how to go into a space, into a room, and think, 'This will look good here,' " she said, "without wondering whether it's going to be important and historic -- and sometimes being surprised."
Most important to the Long Island, N.Y., native, is that since she left the East Coast for Chicago in 1967 to become a full-time artist, her art has evolved and continues to do so. Her work hints at influences as varied as Japanese prints and the paintings of Jamie Wyeth.
"In my earlier work," Joyce states on the Arts Action Alliance of Clackamas County Web site, where she is the currently featured artist, "the landscapes are idealized, gentle and soft-edged, inviting the viewer to a safe haven. My current work is dreamlike, thought-provoking and multilayered, using color to enrich the image and focus the composition."
Much of that work, which Joyce describes as "pretty surreal," can be seen in the Spiral Gallery in Estacada, the Skylight Gallery in Clackamas County's Sunnybrook Service Center in Clackamas and the Rental Sales Gallery of the Portland Art Museum. Mostly her work is in acrylics on primed watercolor paper, oils on canvas, acrylics on walls and wood panels, and watercolor and pen-and-ink studies.
Joyce didn't start out to be an artist, but a teacher. As a student at Hofstra University in New York from which she received a bachelor of science degree in fine art education in 1964, however, she learned a profound lesson, she said.
Backup support "I decided I'm not a very good teacher, although I admire teachers exceedingly," she said, "and I did teach English as a second language in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia in 1966 and 1967."
So while her husband, Carl Solomon, pursues his career as a counselor at Grant High School in Portland, Joyce works at her art in a spacious studio in their home near Estacada High School, with a belt of greenspace behind it. Fortunately, she said, her husband's job provides them not only with a steady income but also with health care and pension benefits freelance artists seldom enjoy on their own.
"It's difficult," Joyce said of being a professional artist. "You can work very hard and still not have much income."
Joyce said she would advise young people who want to make a living with their art "to go and talk to artists and interview them and accumulate a body of work and get feedback on it. And keep an open mind, too."
Joyce said a big difference between amateur and professional artists is that professionals must be both inventive and communicative. Especially, she said, they must be good listeners.
"You need to create your own job," Joyce said, "to find out what people want and what they'll buy. Get feedback from people you respect. One of the things I like about working for McMenamins is working with the other artists. The feedback you get speeds up your growth; it speeds up your progress quite a lot."
For information about Joyce and photographs of her art, see the Arts Action Alliance of Clackamas County's Web site at http://www.co.clackamas.or.us/citizenin/abc/artsaction/arts.htm.
More about Jennifer Joyce and her Paintings
Read more about Jennifer Joyce and her Paintings at:
\newurlhttp://www.co.clackamas.or.us/citizenin/abc/artsaction/artist.htm, Jennifer Joyce and her Paintings
Jennifer Joyce:
The visual arts have always resonated with me. I am currently working with subject matter that is inspired by art history, the world around me and images emerging from my unconscious. I believe in the collective unconscious, and that myths reflect common human projections from that unconscious.. The journeys people make in their lives are representative of a universal dynamic, one that I feel compelled to capture in various images. I use elements of the natural world to communicate evolving concepts in my mind. I am a big believer in craft and skill, as the painting itself communicates ideas though a vocabulary of shapes and colors. The satisfaction of painting for me is the process of bringing a nascent idea to a complete image. The need to paint is compelling, and deeply satisfying, until the next image is trying to shape itself and the process starts all over again.
In my earlier work, the landscapes are idealized, gentle and soft-edged, inviting the viewer to a safe haven. My current work is narrative, dream-like, thought provoking, and multi-layered, using color to enrich the image and focus the composition.
I am currently working as a freelance artist, doing acrylic and oil paintings in my studio. I also create decorative art, illustrations and murals for McMenamin's Kingdom. My work is currently being shown at the Spiral Gallery in Estacada and the Rental Sales Gallery at the Portland Art Museum. I have worked on eleven community murals in Portland and Estacada, and was the lead artists on four of them. As an Artist-in-schools I have created with students over 40 murals throughout the state.
I received a BS in Fine Art Education from Hofstra University in New York 1964. I moved to Chicago in 1967 to pursue a career as a fulltime artist, focusing on abstract expressionism and collage. After relocating to Portland, OR in 1969, and I began to work on representational landscapes. Since 1990 I have been working with both whimsical and surrealistic imagery. I am a founding member of the Artback, a nonprofit artists' cooperative formed in 1992 to create public art in the small, rural community of Estacada, OR.
I work primarily in acrylic on primed watercolor paper, oils on canvas, acrylics on walls and wood panels, and watercolor and pen and ink studies.
Jennifer can be reached at 503-630-6557
List of paintings
* "The Way Out" Acrylic on paper 14"x10"
* "Loving The Trees" Oil on canvas 12"x 9"
* "Beginnings" Acrylic on paper 14"x10"
* "The Hand on the Hill" Oil on canvas 12"x 9"
* "The Heart of the Matter" Acrylic on paper 14"x10"
* "Starflower"
* "Erudition" 9.75x13.75
* "Basket Moon"
* "Contemplation"
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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Ethiopia; Art
PCOL3325
99
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Hello,
I'm trying to locate a painting or print of a wonderful painting I saw at McMenamin's in Mcminnville. It's of a witch on top of a building, a weathervane, I believe...My wife and I really want a copy for our home.
Thanks,
Jim Carr
jmlvdeb@peoplepc.com
