Joyce Marquess Carey Design Process

primaries drawing

Drawing for "Primaries"

This slide show is similar to the movie "Design Process". If you have Quicktime, you might enjoy the movie version. The artist speaks! Music!

(Click on the small images to enlarge.)

Every piece starts with an idea. My design ideas come from many different sources.

I draw inspiration from architecture, gardening, social issues, travel, gameboards and from the materials and processes themselves.

This is bloodroot, inspiration for "Sanguinaria"

. "Sanguinaria" is based on the double meaning of a word. "Sanguinaria" means "bloody things" and it's also the scientific name for the flower bloodroot, or Sanguinaria Canadensis.

Sometimes it's an inspiring space. "Mending" is installed in the cancer treatment wing of a hospital. I wanted to suggest that our bodies heal themselves and become whole.

Sometimes it's just the fun of playing with design. "Glad Rags" were designed for a children's hospital. "Glad Rags" are "fabric about fabric" suggesting bright flags or banners flapping in the wind.

I enjoy designing with illusion. "Passing Through" is completely flat, as is all of my work. It suggests planes that pierce the surface, loop, and merge with the background. The illusion is created by the use of color and shape.

I use a variety of methods and tools to develop a design idea. I make drawings of things that interest me in a sketchbook. I also collect clippings and brief notes of ideas I'd like to explore.

Some of my best ideas come from two apparently unrelated things that suddenly click. I draw, make collages and 3-D models with paper or fabric. When I'm ready to make a final design, I usually work in Photoshop or Canvas on my Macintosh.

"Seeing Stars" was created for an exhibition called "Women of Taste", organized by Girls Incorporated in California. Artists were paired with chefs and asked to create a collaborative work. My chef was Odessa Piper who owns L'Etoile in Madison. L'Etoile means "the star".

Odessa is drawn to the stars that hide in food, such as the ones you see when you cut open an orange. I began this piece by photographing whole and cut fruits and vegetables.

Like geodes, the insides contain a surprise that can't be learned by looking at the outside.

Drawing with my computer, I laid out a square background with eight segments that are like an orange. The eight segments are a circular calendar, representing Odessas's concept of the eight seasons of eating--early spring, spring, early summer, summer and so on.

I scanned my veggie photographs into the computer and stylized them into new drawings. Then I could move the drawings around so they fit into the right part of the year.

Then I added twenty-four colors encircling the center with hot colors corresponding to summer and cool colors during the cold months. I added names of the months to fit on a circular path.

Using the morphing tool in Canvas, I made line drawings that gradually turned a snowflake into a sun, a moon into an orange.

Assembling all the elements, here's the computer drawing for "Seeing Stars". I enlarged the drawing full scale to use as a guide in creating the piece.

In the final piece, I used the original photos again, making iron-on transfers on silk. Each vegetable is outlined in gold thread.

I am often asked how I get through periods when I feel less creative, when I experience a designer's block. The main thing is to relax and accept the fact that I need time to recharge my creative mind. I've made things all my life, and so far I haven't run out of ideas, even though there are times when I think I've probably had my last idea and made my last thing.

I look over my design notebook for ideas that haven't been realized yet. I go outside and garden. I look through art books. I try something different like watercolor. I go for a walk and look for things to photograph or draw.

An outside opportunity like commissioned work will often give me a push in the right direction by posing a new challenge

Sometimes I'm stuck because I try to impose an idea or structure on my materials. It seems that many times the work exists and it's waiting to be uncovered. If I let go of a preconceived idea and get into a genuine dialogue with the process, the piece will magically design itself.

"Wings" was created for the Central Plains Clinic in Sioux Falls South Dakota. Many of the clinic's clinets are Sioux. I wanted to reflect Sioux art tradition without copying it.

The bodice of this dress was my inspiration for "Wings". I incorporated a central motif based on Sioux beadwork.

"Dancers" is the companion piece at the other end of the atrium.

The design for "Dancers" comes from this Sioux ledger drawing.

Sometimes it's necessary to collaborate with other artists on commissioned work. I have an 18-year collaborative relationship with two other artists in creating the annual banners for the City-County building in Madison.

Pat Mansfield, Phil Hamilton and I were a team until Pat retired and moved to North Carolina a few years ago. Phil and I continue to work well together. Two or three heads really are better than one, at least with the banners.

"The Children's Zoo" is the 18th annual banner for the City-County Building. Each year we create a new design. The banner is installed in May and dismantled in October.

This horse and rider is a drawing by my granddaughter Elizabeth Delaquess. it was Elizabeth's suggestion that animals would be a good theme for the banner.

I wanted to use Elizabeth's drawings and those of her sister Robin to make a playful composition for the banner. My granddaughters agreed that this was the most awesome banner of all!

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