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Sculptor

Joyce Zipperer

Joyce Zipperer grew up in Mobile, Alabama, home of the Mardi Gras. Yearly parades of elaborate floats and costumes were major events and made a lasting impression on Joyce, who had a natural knack for drawing, sewing and building objects. Her mother was an excellent seamstress and her dad was a carpenter.

She studied Clothing and Textiles at Auburn University, AL, later becoming a graphic artist while developing a fine art career. Basically self-taught, she painted for several years, before gravitating to sculpture in the 1980’s. Later taking up stone carving and welding from 1997-2002, Joyce studied stone carving with international master, Constantine Seferlis, of the National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.

In 2003, Joyce was inducted into the National Association of Women in the Arts (NAWA), for sculpture, in New York City. Currently a member of the Washington Sculptors Group, she served on the board for twelve years. A book, ‘100 Artists of the Mid Atlantic’, by E. Ashley Rooney, published in 2011, features her work.

Selected recent shows:
2018 LATITUDE: Katzen Art Museum, American University, Washington, D.C.;
2015, Central Booking Gallery, NYC;
2012 solo exhibition, NAWA Gallery, 5th Ave., NYC;
2013 Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY;
Katzen Art Museum, American University, D.C.;
Luther W. Brady Gallery, George Washington University;
U.S. Botanic Garden, Washington, D.C.;
The Painted Bride, Philadelphia, PA;
Suffolk Museum, Suffolk, VA;
Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ;
Huntsville Museum of Contemporary Art, AL;
Carroll Reese Museum, ETSU, TN;
Galeria Mesa Arts Center, AZ;
LH Horton Gallery, San Joaquin Delta College, CA;
Vasteras Museum of Art, Sweden;
1111 Sculpture Space, Washington, D.C.

Kiwi Bird

It was July 1974, on the waterfront in Alexandria, Virginia, that the former Torpedo Factory Plant was gaining new life. In an agreement with the mayor and City Council, the Virginia Representative and artist, Marian Van Landingham, struck a deal to allow area artists to rent studio space in the cavernous building that had been vacated since the end of World War II.

A group of artists spent weeks removing debris and shooing pigeons and mice from their previous nesting areas inside the building. Then the call went out to artists. With the response being tremendous, the first jury system was put into place. Artists were asked to bring 5 pieces of their work to be juried by a group of established artists. I was among the first original artists to be juried into the newly established Torpedo Factory Art Center.

At the time, I was working for a newspaper publishing company, doing layout and graphic art. At home I was painting, drawing and exploring other mediums such as scratchboard. Kiwi Bird is created in scratchboard and was among my submissions to qualify for studio space in the Torpedo Factory.

Scratchboard was a popular form of art often used in magazine illustrations during the 1940’s and 1950’s. As photography gained ground with its many techniques, scratchboard became a thing of the past, almost becoming a lost art. I’ve heard it has been making a bit of a comeback as new artists have discovered the medium.

Scratchboard is easy to do and can have dramatic affects by its very nature of being black and white. All you need is scratchboard paper which is a thick, stiff paper treated with a dense layer of hardened white chalk. Get a bottle of India ink and brush on two layers. First brush in one direction, let it dry, then brush on the second layer in the opposite direction until the paper is completely covered. Once dry, use a pencil to transfer any drawing you want to make onto your prepared scratchboard. With an Exacto Knife and varying blade shapes, lightly begin to scratch off the ink, exposing the chalk white areas of the paper. You don’t want to cut through the chalk. Once the total image is complete, you can introduce areas of color by applying colored inks.

Happy scratching!
Joyce Zipperer
www.zipperer-sculpture.com

ACO Joyce Zipperer, December 7, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXJPcUbkB04

Meee Owww

Textured Aluminum corset top. Skirt made from cat food can
lids.
61” x 14” x 13”

13” Lure

Aluminum, stainless steel, fiberglass
mesh with crocheted wire details.
54”x13”x12”, which includes the stand.

Lacy

Crocheted and maceramed color
treated copper wire.
13’ x 15” x 9”

Rack

Created on deer antlers, with cut
strips of copper to resemble fur.
Waxed linen cord secures copper
bra parts to antlers. The neck
strap is copper wire macrame.
15” x 16” x 5”

Cinched

Copper from repurposed
naturally patinated
downspouts, and other
copper details.
12” x 8” x 6”

Nike’s Slipper

Copper on wooden shoe last / Antique copper wheel
2009

I found an antique wooden shoe last which meant I could attach any metal shape by use of nails; or adding wheels, to create whatever I wished to express in a shoe design. NIKE'S SLIPPER was the result.

Spikey

Repurposed job-site Copper.
6” x 3” x 7”

I found a sizable sheet of discarded copper at a building site, hence tagging it as “job-site” copper. Making my own pattern for SPIKEY, the shoe was cut from this single sheet of copper, then bent and curved into the final shoe shape shown.

Autumn Leaf

Copper 2014

The inspiration for AUTUMN LEAF was an actual oak leaf I spotted on the sidewalk one day that had dried in a curious position. The pointed extensions of the leaf had turned up and down in the proper places, resembling a fanciful shoe shape.

Hell On Wheels

Aluminium/stainless steel/ glass beads/ribbon/antique wheels 2012

One day I was sitting in the library parking lot and noticed a woman struggling to walk across the lot in a pair of platform shoes on uneven pavement. I thought, "she really needs help!" Hence, the inspiration for HELL ON WHEELS.

Ouch

Hand carved limestone 1998

OUCH was the second stone I had ever carved. I picked out a block of limestone which had the best proportions for an upright, compact shoe. I could immediately envision what I wanted to bring out of this stone. Shoes have been a big subject in my work.

Nautilus

Direct carved Caen Stone.
19” x 7” x 15”, 90 lbs.

NOTE: Caen stone is a type of limestone, only a little softer on the hardness scale. It is a 3.5 out of 10. Limestone is a 4, granite being the hardest at 10.
Direct carved means it is totally carved by hand with hammer and

Infinity

Direct carved Limestone.
8” x 8” x 3”