Acorn Artwork

Joy’s photography and mixed media works demonstrate a palpable and authentic connection to place. Having familial links to Savannah and the Lowcountry has had a considerable influence on what she gravitates towards capturing in her art. Her family were stewards of Callawassie Island: agricultural laborers, hunters and fisherman, proud domestic women and family caregivers. This visual library that was introduced to her is the place she conjures inspiration from, it is the witness of water and land as a conduit to sustenance, stability, wonderment and peace. She also belongs to a generation when image making had become more accessible to the masses through the introduction of the Brownie, the Polaroid and Super 8mm. She was exposed to a visual world through a creative and enthusiastic family — chance storytellers who valued the provenance that photographic images afforded them. It imprinted upon her the importance of preservation through a creative relationship to culture, place, expression and memory. As a youth, Joy was drawn to the visual sophistication that dominated music, film, fashion and magazine culture. The well of inspiration was deep, from the provocative content of Andy Warhol’s 15 Minutes to the seductive masthead of The FACE magazine. She was enticed by the seemingly boundless marriage of all mediums through graphic design. While a portion of Joy’s work embraces the pure form and effectiveness of photography unadorned, her art is also informed by her design background. Using bright colors and polished surfaces contrasted against the soft focus and abstraction of images, the work encourages the viewer to examine the fracture and harmony of the traditional and the modern. A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design with a B.F.A. in Graphic Design, Joy is the owner of the Photopoint Gallery in Richmond Hill, Georgia, and a member of the KOBO Gallery Artist Cooperative. She has participated in several group exhibitions at the Photopoint Gallery and Arts on the Coast Gallery (Richmond Hill, Ga.), SouthxSoutheast Gallery (Modena, Ga), Artfields (Lake City, S.C.), and the Location Gallery, Sulfur Studios and Telfair Museums (Savannah, Ga.). She is an active board member with the Ossabaw Island Foundation, Coastal Empire Habitat for Humanity, The Savannah Traffic Club and Arts on the Coast. Joy is also owner and principal creative at JOY Marketing.