About Joy Corcoran

I am an artist, storyteller and writer who lives in Portland, Oregon.  I moved here in 2006, but spent my first 46 years in Memphis, Tennessee.

I started writing poetry and stories when I was a child but didn’t start making art until I was in my thirties.  All of my work is narrative with a hint of magic and wonder.

 

 

ART WORK:

For art, my main focus has been using fabric to make dolls, sculptures and wall hangings.  I like using fabric because it’s accessible and touchable.  Also, cloth figures bring back feelings we had as children, when the lines between imagination and reality were not so distinct.  I like using a common medium (cloth) and a common form (dolls) to make an uncommon statement about our image of ourselves.

I have recently expanded into drawing, painting, paper clay and mixed media art.

In my art and stories, I draw from the vast beauty of traditional stories and mythology.  In the world of mythology, gods & goddesses are put through terrible physical trials and are often transformed from one shape to another.  Nymphs become trees, a goddess has her head cut off and replaced by a cow’s head, a girl must move into the underworld – yet in each of these transformations, many of their powers remain in tact and some new ones are discovered.  I try to mythologize the struggles of everyday life.

I have a long term project called “Bodies in Transition: from Transformation to Transcendence” which uses mythological imagery to add a magical element to the physical challenges of disability — wheelchair mermaid, tree people, bird people — images that I hope help us celebrate the change we all must go through.

My art work is in both private and public collections.  I am proud to have one of my wheelchair mermaids in the director’s office of the Memphis Center for Independent Living.  My Yin/Yang Tango was part of the Roots of Racism: An Exhibition of Contemporary American Quilts, curated by Susan Lumsden.  This is exhibit was chosen as part of the Art in Embassies program and showed in Islamabad, Pakistan.  I am a member of the Oregon Women’s Caucus for Art.

STORIES:

I write and tell stories about the sublime in the ordinary — everyday heroes and the magic of life.  We are all on heroes journey, even if it seems we are only trying to make ends meet on minimum wage salaries or dealing with physical challenges.  I often tell stories on how stories and books have saved my life.  I believe in the power of humor and imagination and wonder.

I have a stories about quirky elders, about rising above disability, about reading, art and the help we get in life from unexpected places.   I grew up in Memphis in the 1960s and 70s, and have many stories on the merging and integration of cultures in the urban South. I tell stories to young and old audiences and have many original stories for children.

I am a member of the Portland Storyteller’s Guild.  I have told stories at the Multnomah County Library International Literacy Day Celebration, Colored Pencils, and  many community events.

My stories have been published in literary and regional publications.

If you’d like to commission art work, see a sample of my stories, or just say hi, please contact me at joyzmailbox@gmail.com