Featured Artist March 2015
Joy Broom
Joy Broom creates extravagant, layered, 3-dimensional specimen boxes and sculptures which combine her intricate line drawings of organic elements with actual insects, seed pods, branches, body references, antique maps and biological medical sources, all covered with purified beeswax.
Joy Broom earned her BA degree and MFA degree in art from Washington State University. In 2012, she was artist-in-residence at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Broom has exhibited her work widely in the Bay Area as well as nationally. She has been awarded a Western States/National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (WESTAF) for Works on Paper. Broom was a beloved instructor at Diablo Valley College before her retirement.
Artist Statement
I’m interested in layering, in terms of concept, imagery and materials. The drawings themselves reflect elements of nature: seeds, trees, vines, cells, my body, insects, organs, cocoons, and whorls representing energy itself. I’ve sliced the pages out of two original sketchbooks and coated them with purified beeswax to seal, protect, bind, naturalize and beautify them. The work in this series has engaged me for over six years. The pieces are small meditations in themselves, referring to my own and human history as a part of a wider natural universe.
From the Insect Specimen Boxes series
Book of Letters, mixed media, 2014
Album Cluster, mixed media, 2014