About joy

Born in Newark, New Jersey, and raised in the small town of Boonton, Joyce Hayes had a passion for art even as a little girl. She knew that she was not inclined to become a nurse as expected by her parents. Instead, she decided to pursue her passion for art. Joy attended the Morris County Vocational Technical School, earning an Associate Degree in Commercial Art at the finishing of her High School education. In the year of 1976 Joy’s detailed pen and ink illustration of Jimi Hendrix, and rich velvet colorful pastel rendition of Diana Ross won her second place in the New Jersey Art Director’s Scholarship Contest. Her appetite for art led her to The Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts in Newark New Jersey where she completed her studies for a degree in Fashion and Pictorial Illustration. As she matured artistically her small town community followed and enjoyed her art when displayed in an array of public settings. Joy is a talented and versatile artist; she has explored many different mediums and styles, but she is best known for producing large scale pastel illustrations of well known people. In the medium of pastels, Joy is a self- taught artist. Having spent numerous years mastering the blending of pastel colors using her fingertips, she brings the canvas to life. It is refreshing to see an artist start from a sketch and build layers of underpainting, then manipulate the pastel paint to create the desired illusion. This process is very time consuming but it is what sets her art apart from the computer generated images we see everyday around us. Most of Joy’s illustrations evoke the feeling that the viewer is being watched due to her ability to capture the spirit in the eyes of the subject, although Joy’s artistic skills are not limited to drawing people. Joy believes that through her art she can touch the hearts of people which will stimulate emotions and positively influence the individual . Her art has been exhibited in such Galleries as The Bronze Kingdom, Three Masks Inc Gallery, Orlando City Hall, African American Museum of Art of Deland, Mary Mc Cleod Visual Arts Gallery of Daytona, The YSG Cultural Center, Harris House At New Smyrna & The Hub on Canal, Metro Galleries in Orlando, The Deltona Arts & Historical Center, The Rose Room Gallery in Daytona, Hospitality Gallery in Orlando, City of Arts Factory of Orlando and Casselberry Arthouse.