Posts Tagged ‘icons’

Joe Bolyard was born in Raleigh County West Virginia, and would later move to Chicago, Illinois before coming back to West Virginia at the age of six.  Joe Bolyard creates metal repousse’, which are hand-tooled relief works in pressed metal.  He also enjoys painting in acrylics on canvases and mixed-media.  Bolyard is mostly self-taught, with a few classes from Marshall. 

Early Life
Bolyard discovered his love for art when his parents took him to the Art Institute and other art museums on Sundays.  After visiting the museums he began to see everything as art.  His parents encouraged him to be creative, but they sometimes did not understand ways his creativity manifested.  His father made hardwood cabinetry and furniture, and Bolyard was inspired by his father’s projects, but even as a child he preferred painting or sculpting.  Boyard skipped some of the lower-level art classes and went straight into Marshall’s upper level art classes, mostly in sculpting.

Inspirations/Admirations
Bolyard is inspired by a lot of things,  sometimes as mundane as conversations and food to the weather and people.  Bolyard has also found inspiration in his faith and spirituality through the Episcopal church.  He finds his relationship with God to be the most important thing in his life and he shows it through his art.  Some examples would be his “Cruciform” pieces, which are crucifix-like forms, roughly tooled in pewter and created to look like smaller pieces of a larger relic. Bolyard has also created one of the “Stations of the Cross” for this year’s exhibit at Christ Church United Methodist in Downtown Charleston.

Current/Future Work
Currently Bolyard is doing “Cruciforms,” “Relics”, and some new acrylic painting on canvas with strong emphasis on color, juxtaposed by simplified impressionism or just naked, simple forms.  Currently he is exhibiting his art work for sale at Visions on Capital Street, his website, and in his home.

Bolyard’s goal for the future is to be more proficient at producing art and to start promoting his art.  His long term goals are to live as a self sustaining artist, producing works of his choice.