Joy's Creative Space

This is a collage that I did from altered photos from my trip to Paris.The image of the abstract face is one of my own paintings. I also used words from a book that I found in a bookstore in Paris.. I did this collage as a special piece from my memory of the magic of Paris.I spent ten wonderful days in an old section of the city across from the Seine River where Monet did his paintings. I am also doing another series of my trip to Giverney, Auvers and Montmartre. The artwork will be a combination of fiberart, collage, drawings and pintings.

This is a chair that I altered. The chair already had a canvas back that was a perfect painting surface. . I used one of my own face designs drew it in marker and then painted it in acrylics. The theme was a princess chair for a teenagers room. I did the chair with the idea that everyone deserves to be a princess sometimes. It was auctioned to raise money as a part of a scholarship fundraiser for Proformance Dance.

This is an example of the fiberart that I am doing for the Fiberart for a Cause in Chicago to help raise money for cancer prevention in April. I used various techniques including mixed media, manipulative fabric, collage, machine embroidery, hand stitching and beading. The themes also vary. Some are my own drawings collage and paintings photo transfered onto fabric hand dyed fabric. I love to try different mixed media and fiber techniques in small pieces of my art.

This is Tiffany the Christmas fairy who lives in the Forest. She is a beautiful little fairy who has special powers and can turn anything that she touches with her wand into crystals and spreads winter magic that you can only see if you close your eyes. I started with a bendi doll made out of cloth. I then began drawing in the face and doing the hair which was hand sewn one strand at a time. I used different material such as pieced and manipulated fabric and fibers collaged on water soluble stabilizer to make her skirt and she has a blouse made from hand dyed silk.. I made the fairy wings and crown out of fabric stiffened with glue, acrylic paint, shimmery nail polish and glitter. I also created the embellishments out of pieces of water soluble stabilizer and fibers. Her necklace is hand beaded fibers.. I used rainbow dyed ribbon for her shoes.

This is the watercolor sketch for the fiber piece that I did Garden in Thread. It was a quick sketch of the feelings and impressions of the colors of the garden on that beautiful spring day.

Here I am painting in my back yard last spring. The flowers were absolutely vibrant with color. I did a small watercolor of what I saw. The vibrant colors reminded me of when I went to Paris and saw Giverney and Monet's gardens. Later on I created a fiber piece in thread called Garden in Thread.