Kris Joy

Medium: Joy Glass

ARTISTIC BEGINNINGS: Kris Joy has dreamt about glass since she was eight years old. Her first encounter with the magic of glass happened when she was ten. Her parents took her to a craft show where she watched, transfixed as a glass artist used a torch to create glass figurines. On the way home she told her parents, “That is what I am going to do when I grow up”.

ARTISTIC PATH: At age 13, no one would accept Kris in their classes so she began creating small glass figures, working at home on her dad’s welding torch and gas rod. Soon she was selling her torch work figures. At 15, she enrolled in a glass blowing class at a local junior college. The class was cancelled after only three quarters but that was enough to affirm Kris’ dedication to become a glass artist. A high school graduation gift was all the equipment she needed to do torch work glass and by the age of 18, Kris had her own equipment and a business. 

PROCESS AND INSPIRATION : Kris’ process is less a matter of seeking inspiration and more a matter of opening the door to the myriad ideas churning inside her mind – her mind never stops, which she is alternatively grateful for and frustrated by — “I will never be able to make all the art I want to. Ideas come like rain, and I have only a thimble to catch the water.”

For Kris, ideas are planted by dreams and bloom forth from the organized chaos within her studio. Working is a process of complete submersion into that space between the waking world and the inner world of her creativity. Her love for animals and plants also spill over into her artwork. Motion, movement, and expression is what she wants to convey.

Kris is drawn to the tactile from lines, shapes, and textures in her environment which she interprets through two principle mediums: glass and clay.

Silica is her constant, although it produces disparate artistic experiences. Blowing glass is a remote and scorching team effort, spontaneous and fast. Ceramics, which came much later in Kris’ life is hands-on, solitary, cold, and slow. There is time to think and the clay is cool to touch. Enjoying the contrast between these mediums, she immerses her self in the process of experimentation and exploration that characterizes her work.

LIFE AS A GORGE ARTIST: Kris has sold to over 100 galleries across the nation for years. Her work is in private collections and corporate settings around the world, including international royalty. For all that, though, the Columbia River Gorge is her home. More and more she is spending time with her family, gardening, and the enjoying the Gorge beauty.

 HOW TO LEARN MORE:

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