There are other glitter painters in the world...all of them operating on the same principles that we explored in elementary school--sprinkling glitter into pools of glue. Then Claire Joyce-Johnson came onto the scene. The glitter painting world will divide itself into two eras: BC (Before Claire) and AC. Her solo debut will be unveiled tomorrow at Atlanta's Fay Gold Gallery. Did I mention that I married her last year?
To commemorate the occasion, Felicia Feaster wrote a fantastic article in today's edition of Creative Loafing.
Glitter is also Joyce's preferred medium, one she has wrestled away from its lowbrow, crafty riggings and invested it with wit, meaning and a virtuosity that allows her to render a cherry-blossom branch or a leopard-striped pillow with a remarkable photo-realist veracity.
I've written about her work in Extreme Craft before. Her graduate thesis show (which was only last year) was a paragon of ambition. The triptych of 8-foot by 4-foot panels that made up that show took a solid 9 months of work. The new show, which has to be seen to be believed, consists of 7 works as large as 4 feet by 6 feet that took nearly a year of backbreaking labor. The Creative Loafing article references the sand mandalas that Tibetan monks make, and I can't think of a better comparison for the detail, labor, and process involved in Claire's work. The show opens at Atlanta's Fay Gold Gallery on Friday, April 20th (4:20, y'all!). The reception will be held on Friday from 6-8 p.m.
LINK to Creative Loafing article
