Joan Savoy

Statement
 

I have trouble with words around my art. I don't feel they're necessary as the work is so obviously 
about primordial sexual natural things. I just want it to be unabashed and true, confident and
beautiful. My arty friends say I have to write more than this, so here's what I've got:

People often ask why I draw circles and I really didn't know. I can posit that my arm likes to move

that way, which it really does, or they're zen-ny, and I kind of picked them up because I enjoy Asian
art and Buddhism? I could also say that painting yourself as a vulva, apparently known as yoni art,
can be a way to "celebrate femininity, embrace sexuality, and reclaim your identity." OK, that fits.
What woman in the world doesn't need to empower and reclaim herself after being raised in a world dominated by men? Painting the vulva and breasts says "Here I Am," I reckon.

I paint the multiple horizontal black loopy shapes because when I taught at a big inner city high
school they trained a team of us some fun exercises we could do with the students at the start of class
that were calming and centering. One of these grounding exercises involved drawing a sideways figure
8 three times - 10x with your right hand, then 10x left, then 10x both. It was supposed to be your brain pattern (?) and it obviously stuck with me.

I sincerely believe that all good painting is the same somehow so subject matter doesn't really matter. 

I like contrast and texture. I like simple shapes and sometimes they're anthropormorphized so the work appears surreal. I don't worry about creating real spaces or modeling too much.

Being born with some keen color sense, I can sometimes feel color. If I see a box of crayons or a red
and green color combination, say in a piece of fabric, I can get viscerally excited. I often see color compositions and simple shapes in my third eye, mostly when meditating or falling asleep.  If I ask to be shown my next painting, I'm presented subliminally with small shapes - typically ovals or simple flower shapes - and simple color combinations, but rarely an actual composition. The vulva shapes - the dots, circles or elipses - are always there and can tie everything together. 

I prefer a matte texture in paint so I mix my own and natural pigments, milk and clay tocombat the plasticity of the acrylic. Gouache and watercolor are naturally matte so that works. India ink and
graphite can get shiny, which I like sometimes. I sometimes design compositions so they can be visually entered from the left or right. 

I try not to think when I'm working. When I reach an impasse or if the work isn't awake yet, I leave it. Sometimes I destroy it and try again later to extract a true essence. I just know when the work is true

and I keep going until it arrives. Excitement, bewilderment, fear and frustration are unavoidable for art the birthing process and it makes for an interesting and fun dance. 

I tend to do what I was told not to do by other artists, such as "avoid using blacks, dark browns, floating objects, arbitrary horizon lines... and sex shapes." Oh well.
 

I had a life-changing experience in 2022. Bob Thompson, an African-American artist then dead for 56 years, figuratively gave me the hat he had depicted in several pieces that were part of an unforgettable
show of his at Colby College. Bob's (repeated or inverted) hat shape, or its outline, along with his solid
blocks of color that almost read as stencils has since appeared in my works as integral compostional elements. Not the hat sometimes becomes the figure 8 "brain waves"

Artists I admire encourage me not to censor myself. Maybe that way it's imbued with some sort of
magic. Maybe the yonis speak and help me reclaim my space.

Art Biography

Born - New Jersey

Grants/Awards/Residencies 

2024, 2023, 2021 and other years - Returning residency in the Michael Mazur Print Studio,

          The Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetwon, MA 
 

1992, 1987, 1985 – Selected for residency during Vermont Artists’ Week,           
          The Vermont Studio School, Johnson, Vermont

1991 - Vermont Council on the Arts, Fellowship Awards Finalist
           Montpelier, Vermont

           (One of the old National Endowment for the Arts-backed Individual
           Grants to Artists Awards)

1977 – Nominated for College Honors in Photography, University of Vermont Art 

             Department, Burlington, Vermont
Selected Exhibition Record

I am not able to reproduce a complete copy of my art resume; following is a short list of all that can be

reliably reconstructed.              

01/23   Juried Group Exhibition - Red

              Cambridge Art Association

              Cambridge, Massachusetts

              Juror: Dina Deitsch, Director & Chief Curator, Tufts University Art Gallery

06/22   Members' Open

              Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill

              Truro, Massachusetts

06/21   Members' Open

              Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill

              Truro, Massachusetts

11/17 - 1/18  Members’ Open: Small Works
             Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM)
             Provincetown, Massachusetts

2017   Summer Member’s Show at Cambridge Art Association, “SCAPES”
           CAA University Place Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts

2001   Juried Group Exhibition – 21^st Annual Faber Birren National Color Award Show
              Stamford Art Association Townhouse Gallery, Stamford, Connecticut

1990   Solo Exhibition - Saint Michael’s College Art Gallery

            Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, Vermont

1989   Solo Exhibition - Francis Colburn Gallery

            University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont

1981    Juried Group Exhibition - The Monumental Show

            Gowanus Memorial Art Yard, Brooklyn, New York

            (curated by Frank Shifreen, Michael Keene and George Moore)
 

1980? - About a year or so before the Gowanus Show in 1981 I had a Solo
             Exhibition at the Salon de Refuses at the Westbeth Artists Space in
             New York City, curated by Michael Keene. I can no longer identify the
              exact date.

Art-Related Work Experience

1986 to 1991 - Adjunct Professor of Art, Saint Michael’s College, Colchester,
Vermont; Taught painting, 2D design, and some art history

Selected Education 

2014   State of Massachusetts Reading Specialist Licensure,

            Collaborative for Educational Services/Fitchburg State, Fitchburg,           
            Massachusetts

2006   Wilson Reading System Teacher Training, 

             Wilson Reading Academy, Oxford, Massachusetts

2006   Masters of Education, Special Education/Moderate Disabilities (5-12),          
             Cambridge College, Cambridge, Massachusetts 

1977    BA, Double Major in English and Studio Art with a History minor,

             The University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, 1976-1977

1973-1975 

            College studies with a concentration in Studio Art and History,

            Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York