Currents: Christine Joy

Once a month I take my art students 'into town' to the Missoula Art Museum. The MAM offers a Teen Artist Workshop  for young artists every second Wednesday of the month. 
It is free and they provide materials, pizza and snacks. Awesome.

Anyway, as the kids were working on making found art sculptures with working artist James Louks, I snuck out to take a look at the current exhibitions at the MAM.

I am so glad I did.

{I completely fell in love with the flowing, rhythmic sculptures of Christine Joy.}

They are astounding.

No loose ends. 

No visible ties. 

The sculptures are made of branches that are bent, twisted and shaped into giant vessels, knots and shapes of all sorts. They reminded me of giant skeins of yarn... which seems fitting. The smell that the willow and the wax together create in the gallery is comforting. Warm and cozy, like knitting on a rainy day. Another MAM patron and I laughed at ourselves for not wanting to leave.




The MAM will have this show up until January 15th. Christine Joy will be at the MAM to give a gallery talk on November 1st at 7pm. 

I can't wait to hear more about her process. So exciting.

Here is a link to a great article about Christine Joy- with more images!