Artist's Statement
Joan Coye is an intuitive artist who works with vintage jewelry and found items, acrylics, and in clay (to bronze). Her sculptures are primarily figurative while her non-clay works are abstract and symbolic in nature. In these, she artfully integrates multiple media sources into rhythmic patterns, with rich color palates and embedded messages. Joan’s bronze sculptures exude grace, movement, feminine strength and are strongly influenced by her personal experience with the S Factor feminine movement practice. Her female nudes in acrylic and mixed media draw from French art and culture. Joan’s unique biography and sources/inspirations behind her oeuvre, reveal an artist who has deftly integrated passion, spirituality, individualism and solid technique to create a genuinely original body of work.
Joan is originally from the Washington DC metro area and now calls Orlando, Florida and Paris, France her homes. The French cultural emphasis on art and beauty in every element of life, has significantly influenced her psyche and artworks. Religion and spirituality are central in Coye’s life and she finds meaning and purpose in the overriding tenet to “Love One Another”. In addition, her professional experiences in physical and emotional healing has honed her sensitive and empathetic nature. Her experience as a therapist, grounding in spirituality and adaptation of French culture have led to the development of her signature theme: Beauty in everything.
In her “Time for….“ series, Coye discovers the use of jewelry no longer wanted/needed, of discarded watches and of tokens lost and found, with their overt and covert symbolism, to be ideal materials for expressing the nature of beauty in everything. Each work presents visual beauty, and in addition, a second layer of beauty in subtlely hidden inspirational words and phrases. The generous inclusion of watches adds a sense of urgency to the viewer to carry out the message conveyed.
Her works begin with acquisition of objects from thrift stores (http://www.hopehelps.org and https://outofthecloset.org), yard sales and donations, and wooden boards from the remnants section of a local hardware store. Upon these repurposed wooden bases, she first creates the desired message in jewels, then using the selected color palettes draws from her vast collection items with no pre-ordained pattern or plan. She relies on intuition and inspiration as she creates. As the adhesive requires drying time, the work slowly takes on life and form over weeks or months. Joan’s nontraditional technique and materials bring variety, whimsy, humor and inspiration…indeed beauty in the unexpected.
In her sculpted bronze works, Joan expresses classical beauty, as seen in dance and feminine movement, while her non-bronze sculptures expand the body archetypes and add a visual vocabulary using color and pattern. These diverse feminine forms convey freedom, power and strength echoing Coyes' theme, beauty in everything.
Continuing her focus on the women of strength and power, Joan’s series “Powerful Women” start with familiar images of historical figures, both noted and notorious. She uses vintage jewelry, found objects, fabric, collage and acrylic to give life and voice to each woman. The final encasement of each piece in a resin coating represents the figure as permanent reflection in the window of the past. Coye invites the viewer to enhance and challenge their longstanding and private perceptions of these incredible women who changed the course of history.
The unique combination of elements Joan Coye brings to her work - artistic, personal and professional - gives her the credibility of a unique talent. While each piece is original and stands alone as an expression of beauty and meaning, when seen in the context of the artist’s life, values and technique, it clearly gains a degree of originality and significance to the entire body of her work.
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Artist's Biography
As an intuitive expressive therapist and francophile Joan Brady Coye’s art reflects these elements with a signature theme: Beauty in everything.
Originally from the Washington DC metro area, she relocated to Florida shortly after completing her graduate studies. Joan has been married to Wade Coye 32 years and they share five incredible, independent, intelligent children. Presently, they split their time between their apartment in Montmartre, Paris’ 9th Arrondissement and their home in College Park, Orlando, FL., traveling between the two locales frequently.
IN THE BEGINNING
Joan was identified early as the “creative” (aka messy) child in her family During childhood, she could be found among piles of fabric, paints, markers, glue, cardboard and sticks, fabricating homes and wardrobes for her Barbies. At 9 years old, she talked her mother into allowing her to paint a Holly Hobby mural on her bedroom wall. Each year at the Montgomery County MD Fair she won ribbons and prize money for her entries, including acrylic paintings, small clay sculptures, mosaics with sharks teeth or coins, original photographs and the likes.
She attended undergraduate at Florida Southern College majoring in Psychology and Art with an emphasis in Art Therapy. Having been persuaded that the profession of Artist was not an economically viable option, she went on to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earning a Masters Degree in Occupational Therapy, a profession that integrates creativity, function and health. She worked as the Supervisor of Expressive Therapy in an inpatient mental health hospital utilizing painting, drawing and mix media creating to facilitate the expression and healing. She then owned and operated a private therapy practice focusing on physical rehabilitation in geriatric, adult and pediatric populations. From creating adaptive equipment and fabricating splints to discovering meaningful activities to facilitate muscle strength and coordination, Joan’s creative skills proved a unique contribution to her patient care. She found the effectiveness in helping others regain their mental health and physical independence to be significantly enhanced with the utilization of art media and activities in the rehabilitation process.
RENEWAL
At 48, Joan was diagnosed with breast cancer, underwent a double mastectomy and a rapid return to full health. She refers to this as the “best and worst thing that ever happened to me.” The “worst” was short lived, and the resulting “best” has been a tsunami of appreciation, insights, enlightenments, and expanded sense of herself and the world. From this experience she discovered her true purpose: To make the world more beautiful.
The summer following her recovery, her husband Wade arranged for their family to spend the summer in Paris. Since taking French in high school and briefly visiting the city, Joan had dreamed of living there long enough to experience herself as Parisian. Making this dream come true by renting an AirBNB in Montmartre for a month would not only fulfill her dream, but subsequently later become her second home. Immersion in French culture, language and daily life has had a profound impact on Joan’s artistic expression. The influence of French emphasis of beauty, valuing the arts, delighting the senses, and of fierce individualism shows in her choice of sculpting and painting female nudes, in her choice of subjects in her Powerful Women series and in the bilingual messages in her Time For series.
This deep appreciation for the value of beauty embedded in French culture, her career as a therapist and her own physical recovery, gave Joan a renewed appreciation for her body, for healing, and for the opportunity to live life to the fullest. She thus rededicated herself to her artistic roots and enrolled in sculpture and jewelry fabrication classes and reconstituted her home painting studio. It wasn’t long before the paintings emerged and her first bronze sculpture was born.
SCULPTURES
During one of her initial sculpting classes in oil clay with a live model she recounts her astonishment at the revelation, “I’m a sculptor!” She credits professional sculptor and instructor, Steve Piscatelli (Pi), with the education, encouragement and inspiration that it took for her to evolve into a true sculptor.
Joan’s sculptures show a sensitivity to the female form, conveying strength, resilience and freedom in movement. She uses oil based clay upon an 18-22” armature and works each session with a live model. Drawing from her therapy education in anatomy and physiology and visceral connection with her subjects, Joan produces figurative forms in motion. At the completion of the clay work, Joan then meets with the artisans at the American Bronze Foundry where the patina, base and further refinement of the piece is decided. The foundry produces a wax mold from the clay sculpture on which Joan modifies and adds details. The wax final is then rendered in bronze and mounted on the selected marble base.
Her first bronze, Eva Unchained, signals the release of the inner critic, the moral and social constraints and all the historical messaging that whispers “be small” ,“be afraid”. Eva was featured at the Orlando Museum of Art in Orlando, FL https://omart.org
Kat, another 20” bronze, is caught mid-step in a provocative, playful and self assured dance. The details in her hair, facial features and lithe musculature give a life like fluidity to this statue. Grace, is a classical ballerina stretched to the fullness of her reach, confidently balanced upon a single foot. Grace conveys mastery of her mind and body and a bit of rebellion as a traditional ballerina, yet nearly nude. Joy also speaks of rebellion and unconventionality, innocently leaps while dressed as a bit of a dominatrix.
While basking in the process of clay to bronze, Joan found it increasingly to travel with her sculptures and materials, She began to experiment with paper clay as an alternative. This media lends itself less to detail and allows for the addition of color and pattern. She embraced these new properties by sculpting nudes with a wide array of body types, clothing and presentations. Though primarily still nude, in lieu of a marble base, these paper sculpture women are merged in tree branches, hang from the ceiling or stand alone. Though very different in media and final presentation, Joan’s messaging is consistent, echoing the theme of: beauty in everything.
PAINTINGS & POWERFUL WOMEN
In her reconstituted painting studio, Joan began transferring the “beauty in everything” theme to acrylic paintings. With a bit of remote knowledge from her art education (circa 1983) and an enormous reliance on intuition she began to witness colorful figurative abstracts emerge onto her canvases. Occasionally making a gestural sketch of her proposed work, but more often than not, Coye paints from only a background of strong brush strokes….then watches for the figure(s) to reveal themselves. Her paintings have been shown and sold at the Orlando Museum of Art https://omart.org And Nude Nite in Orlando and Tampa, FL https://www.nudenite.com
Her highly symbolic and abstract renderings on circular mat boards offer a Picasso flavor, while the gilded voluptuous flying angels in pastel give nod to religious frescoes of the renaissance. Coye’s series of black and white figures with red hats rendered on a collage background convey a bit of naughty fun in their poses and words chosen. No matter the style, the female figures in Joan’s painting work are comfortable in their skin and uniquely beautiful.
Then the COVID….How to make the world a more beautiful place was a curious question for Coye during the long weeks of confinement. She studied women in history who spectacularly handled societal and personal challenges of their time and this conception gave birth to her series, “Powerful Women”. Joan chooses historical female figures, both noted and notorious (many of them French) as her subjects. Beginning with a familiar image of each illustrious individual, she then applies vintage jewelry, found objects, fabric, collage and acrylic to give life and voice to such women as Mata Hari, Joan of Arc, Madame Curie, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Corrie Ten Boom and more. She uses a final encasement of each piece in a resin coating representing the figure as permanent reflection in the window of the past. Coye invites the viewer to enhance and challenge their longstanding and private perceptions of these incredible women who changed the course of history….and adds touches of irony and humor in the imagery and collaged words selected.
Joan’s Powerful Women series was featured at The Park Avenue Contemporary Art Gallery in Winter Park Florida https://www.parkavenuecontemporaryart.com An French themed opening night celebration was followed by the artist’s talk and brisk sales.
IT’S “TIME FOR…” A CHANGE
Having always been a collector of things and an “upcycle” aficionado, even before it was a term, Joan’s latest expression of beauty turned to vintage jewelry and positive/affirming secret messages. Reading A Course In Miracles, Eckart Tolle and a devotional by Mary Ann Williamson impressed upon her the power of the written word on the heart and mind. Contemporaneously, she discovered an old box of jewelry and plywood in her garage…..inspiration was born! With destiny and serendipity at work she went to the remnant bin of the building supply center, yard sales and thrift stores to buy wood, vintage and broken jewelry and watches, amassing a great quantity of materials.
The repurposed plywood is prepared and painted for the foundation on which Joan first creates the desired message in jewels. The words chosen may be in print, cursive, in English or in French, depending on the piece. Using the selected color palettes drawn from her vast collection items, she then fills in the remaining surface. Her generous use of watches throughout each work magnifies the message that the time is now to carry out the positive statement embedded in each piece. Her process relies on intuition and inspiration, creating without a plan or pattern. As the adhesive requires drying time, her work slowly takes on life and form over weeks or months. Joan’s nontraditional technique and materials bring variety, whimsy, humor and inspiration…indeed beauty in the unexpected.
Joan transported some of the “Time For…” series to her apartment in France where it was seen by a French art agent who invited her to show her work in an upcoming exposition. Her first show in France was a holiday presentation with multiple artists and featured Joan’s work in the promotional materials as well as the front window of the Galerie Mona Lisa on Rue de Varenne in Paris’ prestigious 7th Arrondissement, steps from the Eiffel tower. https://galerie-monalisa.org/en/ Over one hundred friends and collectors attended opening night…truly a highlight of Joan’s artistic career.
PRESENT & FUTURE
Joan divides her time between her home studio in Orlando and atelier in Paris. She has become a flâneur in the City of Lights (a person who strolls around in a seemingly aimless way) immersing herself in its profoundly beautiful milieu and deep artistic tradition. She studies figure drawing under classically trained instructors at Studio Escalier and sketches in the Louvre and informal drawing salons. She continues to work on her “Time For..” series and has upcoming expositions of these works in London, Monte Carlo and Geneva planned for the coming year. As for the future, she wakes up each morning with profound appreciation and wondering what wonderful thing will present itself that day.