The Art of Textiles – Artwork and Portfolio

In tandem with her focused work in conservation, Joyce creates artwork in series informed by an embracing and contemplative passion for the natural world.

Meditative inquiry, a long-time yoga practice, and the study of Buddhist art and philosophy are enduring influences on Joyce’s embodiment as an artist. Other inspirations are poetry, the language of signs and symbols, the garden, 20th C. art, and of course, the ancient, historic and contemporary textile arts.

Joyce creates artwork at the interface of drawing, weaving, assemblage, and sculpture.

Objects found in her path and in nature are used for their talismanic force and become part of her palette and lexicon. She employs various two-dimensional techniques of drawing, brushwork, frottage, chine collé, and digital and silk-screen printing to build her compositions. Three dimensional techniques of sewing, wrapping, piecing, and weaving are also used.

In addition many national and regional exhibitions Joyce has the distinction of being featured twice in FiberArt International, based in Pittsburgh, PA. Joyce has had teaching assistantships at the Arrowmont School of Crafts (1986), Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (1989, 2012 – w/ Jack Lenor Larsen Scholarship), and artist residencies at Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA and Azule Art Residency, Hot Springs, NC.

Joyce acknowledges her mentors and teachers of note – Katherine Kilgore, Lenore Tawney, Rudi Dundas, Barbara Falkowska, Katherine Westphal and Marcel Marois. Her career as a textile artist began when she completed a 9 month apprenticeship in Gobelin tapestry technique at the Scheuer Tapestry Studio under Rudi Dundas in New York City in 1982 – she continued there as studio weaver and dyer through 1985. Her studio is in Berkeley, CA.

The portfolio below features work grouped in series, subject, or medium. Many works are in the artist’s collection and selectively available for purchase. Please contact Joyce to inquire about availability. Joyce is also represented by Calabi Gallery, Santa Rosa, CA – http://calabigallery.com/artists/joyce-ertel-hulbert/

Selected Artwork Portfolio

Current Work

Interstitial is a new series based on a set of historic fishing nets. Going deep into their structure and the shadows they create in space, I find resonance between nets as origin textile structures and nets as spatial realms more aligned with Zen contemplation. The writing of David Hinton, Chinese scholar and translator, has brought conceptual focus to the work. The on-going series includes drawings, etchings, digital prints, multi-media works. The primary images for this series were accomplished with the generous assistance of an honorary artist residency month at Kala Art Institute. Valued collaborators for this project thus far have been the printers at Kala Art Institute and Magnolia Editions.
Current WorkCurrent WorkCurrent WorkCurrent WorkCurrent WorkCurrent Work

Bark Series

Forming new work, exploring patterns in nature that mirror pattern found in fabric through chance-resist dyeing.
Bark SeriesBark Series

CommonWheel

CommonWheel, Joyce's most ambitious series to date - five 60” x 60” assemblage compositions, as well as multiple smaller works in silk screen and digital fabric prints. The series is based off her reflections and understanding of the Tibetan Buddhist teaching of the Kalachakra, the cycle or wheel of time. Joyce observed and participated in HH Dalai Lama’s teaching of the Kalachakra in Washington, DC in 2011, a teaching meant to empower participants to be vehicles for world peace. Joyce wishes to further this call by concluding her series with the design and weaving of a tapestry mandala. She is seeking support and opportunities to realize this project in the form of grants and artist retreats and residencies. Please contact Joyce with your enquiries and invitations at enquiries @joyce-ertel-hulbert.com
CommonWheelCommonWheelCommonWheelCommonWheelCommonWheel

Constellations

The chance-operation work of John Cage continues to inspire Joyce’s assemblage making process. Created by random acts of tying rocks onto canvas and dipping these groupings in sumi ink, a key component of these works is the unknown. An archival display support unites the rocks firmly with the composition.
ConstellationsConstellationsConstellations

Wilderness Quartet

Debris-strewn trails in the Ventana Wilderness caused Joyce and her husband Mark to lose the trail and spend a night without shelter in the wilderness. They safely hiked out the next day, but back in her studio the profound silence of nature Joyce experienced as the sun set that fateful day resonated and this series erupted and took form quickly. The immediacy of the ink, the resolute presence of the material combined to hold the presence found in wilderness.
Wilderness QuartetWilderness QuartetWilderness QuartetWilderness Quartet

Heraldry

“Heraldry” takes on symbolism originating in ancestral Western Europe, where plant and animal symbolism found its way into the stone, tapestry, and painting of the church and crown. Quail Herald and The Conversion of Lew Welch invite our companions on the landscape of California – the quail and the turkey vulture – into this symbolic pantheon.
HeraldryHeraldryHeraldryHeraldry

Diptychs

Diptychs – smaller works, developed in pairs, forming a dialog on a topic: • Two lines from Canto 1 of Dante’s Inferno informed “My Left Foot”, and “Heart’s Lake” • Esoteric symbolism of the Tarot informed “Happenstance”, and “Lasso, Lassoed” • The duality of male & female, in “Geomancy”, and “Discarded Identities”
DiptychsDiptychsDiptychsDiptychsDiptychsDiptychs

Portals

Portal Series: 2 collage works Dawn Portal 36.5" x 28" x 6" Night Portal 36.5" x 28" x 6" mixed media - drawing, paper, fabric, ink, found objects Shown at SF Zen Center Hospice and given to San Francisco Zen Center Benefit Auction.
PortalsPortals

Tapestries

Each tapestry is hand woven with hand-dyed yarns, including wool, silk, and linen. They are woven on a high-warp loom in Gobelin technique. All compositions are original. Nocturne, Omen, and La Terra remain in the collection of the artist.
TapestriesTapestriesTapestriesTapestriesTapestries

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