"Soul Dance"

Joan Webster-Vore
Strong Roots
Mixed media: acrylic on paper, corn stalks

Joan Webster-Vore is a graduate of the University of Iowa where she received a BFA in Art with an emphasis in drawing, an MA in Textile Design from the Department of Home Economics, and an MFA in Design from the School of Art and Art History. She lives in Hudson, Iowa, and for over 14 years she taught part time in the Art Department or the Department of Design, Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Fall, IA.

Her work has appeared in over 80 competitive, invitational and solo exhibitions both nationally and regionally. She has received awards in recognition of her work including grants from the Iowa Arts Council.

In 2008 her work was exhibited at FiberArt International at the Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, PA where she won the Josephine Cohen Peoples Choice Award. She recently completed a large installation for the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY.

To learn more about Joan Webster-Vore and her work, please visit her at website at: www.joanwebstervore.com. To inquire about the purchase of pieces on display, contact the artist at: (319) 988-3086 or email her at: joan@joanwebstervore.com

Artist Statement

We each have a private journey riding on our own life's current.
Oftentimes currents flow together, sometimes not.
Sometimes we have choices.
Sometimes there are forces beyond our control.
How we live our lives is all about choices: a series of small and sometimes big decisions over which we may or may not have control.

Does time exist? I sense this moment exists, I can feel the here and now.
We are born, we live, we die. Is that reflection of the passage of time?

We cannot take anything tangible with us when we leave this earth.
So what “things” become the important relics of our individual journeys? What would we take with us if we had a choice?

The Vessel

The vessel, an object contrived by humans to carry whatever we desire: ideas, dreams, objects, nourishment, ourselves. We can hold it in our hands, or set it on a hard surface; let it fly through the air, or let it float freely upon the surface of the water. The vessel floating is independent of the water yet responds to its movement as it also responds to the ocean of air which surrounds it.