STATEMENT

Drawing is an exploratory, meditative process of “tapping in” and dialogue with the emerging image. The physicality of this process extends to the manner in which marks made with pastel, graphite, and charcoal co-habitate surfaces that are scratched, cut, perforated, incised, and stitched using tools and abrasives. Ensuing errors, chance effects, revisions, and pentimenti are key to the journey and completion of each work. While abstraction refers to a product without reference to the material world, it can also describe a state of mind wherein one is deep in thought, or pleasurably preoccupied. My drawings are an embodiment of both interpretations.  See 2017 review at http://www.spotlightnews.com/thespot/2017/06/28/art-review-artist-invites-people-of-the-digital-world-to-slow-down-and-look-deeply/

BIO

Artist Joan Oliver currently maintains a studio in Glenmont, NY while juggling a multi-faceted career. She regularly studies at Woodstock School of Art, New York and in Massachusetts at Provincetown Art Association and Truro Arts Center. Since 2000, she has participated in over 25 group and regional/national juried exhibitions. Most recently, Joan has undertaken solo residencies at Provincetown’s historic C-Scape Dune Shack; Polli Talu Arts Center, Estonia, and Platte Cove Catskill Artist Center – all contributing a collective reference for a body of work that includes drawing, painting, encaustic, collage, assemblage, textiles, ceramics and photography.  A member of the National Association of Women Artist since June 2017, see interview at http://www.thenawa.org/joan-oliver/