Joy Adams: Creating a character to explore the always-changing female

ANN MARIE TRIETLEY
Special to The Leader

Rockefeller Art Center is opening its doors to the whimsical world of artist Joy Adams. Thirty years ago women were struggling to be accepted into galleries and had a hard time gaining respect from art critics.

In "Art History," an article in the Signs journal written by Gloria Feman Orenstein, a publication dedicated to publishing articles discussing gender, race, culture and sexuality she said, "It is becoming apparent that women in the arts have finally begun to see something. If this vision can be communicated to culture and society, women will have become authentic creators of their own self-portrait."

Adams provides one example of gender barriers breaking down in the art world. The campus will experience her masterful brushstrokes and idiosyncratic imagery.

Adams, who is from England and recently retired as a professor at Ithaca College, will present her large-scale paintings from Oct. 19 - Nov. 13.

She earned her masters in fine arts from the Maryland College Institute of Art. Her work features the recurring character Mad Sally and challenges the traditional motherly, modest female images in art by deconstructing stereotypes with imagination to spare.

"In some of her previous statements she talked about Mad Sally not being an autobiographical character, but rather a compilation of different people she knew growing up in London," said Tina Hastings, gallery administrator of Rockefeller Arts Center. "So the character evolves from different people that she's known and their characteristics and how she interacted with those people in her childhood."

Mad Sally, while not based completely on Adams' life, still contains some metaphorical truth through the uncanny, strange and somewhat disturbing imagery. The situations in which this character is presented are unpredictable and command attention. The work also refers back to its creator.

"I hope she continues to reveal herself to me in all her outsider, blowsy self-confidence, at least until the day she is ready to slip away into her own mad world," said Adams on the Ithaca College Handwerker Gallery Web site. "She may find another stage for her outrageous dramas, no longer concerned about the likes of me, the one who taught her to yodel and her only true friend and creator."

In her artist statement regarding Mad Sally on joyadams. net, Adams states "Painted in a deliberate manner and [in] reverence for the legacy andhistory of art, these works are, at the same time, contemporary narratives. They reveal an alter identity in an audacious character contained within an imperfect body. In a cultural climate that rejects age and imperfection, Mad Sally holds her ground as she postures, ever ready to abandon her dignity and defy all the standards of proper comportment and behavior."

The paintings, which are sometimes as large as 6 by 6 feet, will undoubtedly reach viewers through their towering presence and adventurous spirit.

"I think her work has a broad appeal because she's dealing with image issues and the way that this character sees herself," Hastings said. "I think anybody could find something interesting in her paintings."

Adams' work appeared at the Albright-Knox art gallery in Buffalo in 2005. She recalls the old masters, such as Johannes Vermeer (Girl with a Pearl Earring), through her use of velvety glazes and impastos (thickly applied paint).

However, Adams' subject matter is far from traditional. The situations in which Mad Sally finds herself do not always make sense. Viewers will wonder what is to become of this character, when she is faced with strange surroundings or the process of growing old. Viewing Adams' work plants ideas in our own heads about these themes.

"As this series of paintings continues to unfold, Sally and her antics become more and more real to me," Adams said. "She is more comfortable than I in her topsy-turvy world, where she invents her scenes with wicked, bitchy glee. Sally resides quite happily in her own painted skin, believing herself to be the best there is, the best there was, the best there will ever be as she gazes back at me seeing only what her painted eyes can see."

The Joy Adams exhibition will open with a reception 7-8 p.m. on Oct. 19 in the Rockefeller Arts Center gallery. Adams will give a lecture at 8:30 p.m., a day prior to the gallery opening, in 209 McEwen.

"She is introspective, edgy, or comically tinted. Mad Sally exists as a source of speculation; she is my muse, a story to mull over and a celebration of splendid individuality," Adams said.