About

Artist Statement

Born in Orange County, California in December, 1969, Joshua Hoy began art lessons at age 9 with local artist Russ Butler. At age 11 hoy moved to Paris, where he studied at the Ecole Active Bilingue. hHe completed his high school education at the Midland preparatory school in Los Olivos, California and his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Over the course of four years spent living in Paris, Hoy was exposed to the richness and diversity of European art and culture. A thirty year study of Japanese martial arts led to further travel in Japan. the Japanese minimalist aesthetic is visually present in Hoy’s more formalist, welded steel sculptures.

Drawn to the process of forging steel and wanting to deepen his understanding of metal’s multifaceted nature, in 1997 Hoy went to Texarkansas, Arkansas, to study bladesmithing with the American Bladesmith Society.

As an artist Hoy has sought proficiency in a wide variety of processes in order to allow for the richest possible sculptural expression. “I have focused on bronze as my primary medium due to its malleability, its versatility, and its relative immortality. Capturing a moment of beauty or grace in a sculptural form transforms the fugitive into the eternal, thereby holding its presence for contemplation and reflection. In this way sculpture creates a magnetic space – a sacred place for the magnification of the elements present in the work.

Our current postmodern and post-postmodern artistic milieu tends to be primarily conceptual, often at the expense of beauty, I believe in beauty for beauty’s sake. I believe it to be invaluable in its capacity to enrich both our imaginative and emotional lives. Perhaps the greatest challenge is to take something which is inherently cold, as in this case bronze and stone, and charge it with a palpable vitality, imbue it with warmth.

While I enjoy combining various media to express social/political commentary, these ideas come to me in flashes and are rarely thematically connected one to another. Conversely, there is a consistent evolution in my progress when I am working on mastery of the human body, with its infinite potential for expression. At this time my work is primarily figurative as it is my intention to achieve a certain mastery of physical form in order to have a vehicle to express comment and concept. I recall reading something artist Sue Coe once said: that before art can be a tool for change, it has to be art. After many years of working I feel that I am finally arriving at the place where my hands are beginning to catch up with my mind in terms of my ability to express physically what exists in my imagination.

Through the study of Japanese martial arts I have learned a deep appreciation for the process of mindful attention. Like sculpture the study of a true martial art is not a discipline in which one arrives, but rather a process in which one is continually arriving. With each new piece I feel that I am at the beginning of the beginning and that sculpture, like martial arts, requires a lifetime to approach mastery. There exists in sculpture the same opportunity for mindfulness that I experience in the exploration of spatial relationships, of timing, distance, and flow in the martial arts – and there is always so much more to learn, an incredibly humbling experience.

I derive tremendous satisfaction from the process of making sculpture and working in the studio environment. Time seems nonexistent when I am sculpting, as if the entire external world had simply vanished. I enjoy the precision required to wield specific tools and the attention required to transform what is in my imagination into form. Each logistical stage of the casting process brings new challenges. The first time I broke open an investment to find the sculpture inside I had the sense that I was involved in some kind of archeological dig, that I was involved in something ancient. The intrigue of that process has never left me.

At some point we all come to crossroads which lead us out of realms of comfort and into those of adventure and possibility. These are mythical or archetypal junctures, instants of primordial feeling which lead us toward freedom and previously untapped potential. I strive to capture these vibrant moments of revelation, grace or transformation, moments which constitute the richness of the individual human experience.

I am fortunate to have had the benefit of studying with the finest of teachers, among them Fernando Rivera, sculptor and former Special Projects Manager, Johnson Atelier, New Jersey: Sean Monaghan, Foundry Professor at UC Santa Cruz; Fred Hunnicut, former Professor of Sculpture at UC Santa Cruz; Don Fritz, painter and 2d Professor, UC Santa Cruz; Jo Farb Hernandez, Professor of Gallery Management, San Jose State; Ingeborg Gerdes, Professor of Photography, UC Santa Cruz; Grand Master Masaaki Hatsumi, Japanese National Living Treasure, 34th lineal Grand Master, Bujinkan-Budo Taijutsu; Master Instructors Arnaud Coursergue and Kevin Millis, Bujinkan Dojo International. My mentors Master Hypnotists Rainya Dann and Mark Cunningham have fueled the fires that light the path of my life in indelible ways, blessings both, beyond words. Ever will I endeavor to travel deeper : Carlos Eyles, master blue water hunter, unassisted blue water free diving champion, author of, among other books, Last of the Blue Water Hunters. Thank you.

While their fields of expertise are vastly different, each of these teachers has blessed my life, each possessing the rare ability to truly impart the passion they feel to others while maintaining their commitment to excellence and integrity.

– Joshua B. C. Hoy