Joyce Wilson

From earliest childhood, I’ve lived life with tremendous intensity – -wanting to experience, to feel, to touch everything around me, and was transfixed by stories and fables spun for me by my grandmother about the old country.  My curiosity proved insatiable, and I’ve used the creative process of photography to feed this fascination with the mystical.

My career as an artist and photographer has spanned over 50 years, and I’m always fascinated with the endless possibilities.  A thriving portrait studio left little time to pursue dreams of being an artist, but I found a way to straddle a fine line, and my mantra soon became, “One for Thee, One for Me”.   The experiments and images for me evolved into a second career direction, and this work allowed me to become the artist I longed to be.

I am passionate about alternative processes, and blend old world and contemporary technology to enhance and alter the photographic image to a subtler art form.  The camera is my sketchbook for the art that evolves.  I work with a variety of processes including collage, encaustic wax and the ancient art of bromoil and photogravure etching.  An ongoing theme in my personal work is a celebration of the female, the exquisite beauty of nature and the unique connection of the human form within this context.  The challenge for me as an artist is to balance the realities of the world with the fantasies of my imagination to create a moment of surprise and mystery.

Early in my career, a colleague made a statement I’ve never forgotten…”the only constant is change”.  My work is a journey both with subject and technique that is a continuation of my curiosity and life experiences, and I hope the viewer will relate and find their own stories.  I’ve recently put the camera aside, and rediscovered the joy of painting.  Being alone with canvas, paint and my imagination is BLISS.

Artist statement:

An ongoing theme in my personal work is a celebration of the female, the exquisite beauty of nature and the unique connection of the human form within this context. The challenge for me as an artist is to balance the realities of life with the fantasies of my imagination to create a moment of surprise and mystery. I’m passionate about alternative processes, and blend old world and contemporary technology to enhance and alter the photographic image to a subtler art form.

Early in my career a colleague made a statement I’ve never forgotten…”the only constant is change”. My work is a journey with both subject and technique that is a continuation of my curiosity and life experiences, and I hope the viewer will relate and find their own stories.