SUMMARY

Jan Hoy is a local Whidbey Island professional sculptor who has widely exhibited her work through shows and commissions for many years.  She creates her art as a three dimensional answer to a unique question she poses to herself regarding form and function. Some of her forms take 2-3 years of mulling, envisioning, and sketching to find the answer. “4-Up” exudes growth and movement from earth toward the sun.  Its abstract form blends well with a natural environment through shape, motion, color, and scale.  This sculpture has previously been exhibited in various public settings, and this is Jan’s favorite location for it to be seen and experienced.  It’s Corten steel surface melds with the organic soil and contrasts with the verdant green backdrop, positioned near sitting logs so you can ponder and enjoy.

ABOUT THE SCULPTURE

4-Up exudes growth and movement from earth toward the sun.  Its abstract form blends well with a natural environment through shape, motion, color, and scale.  This sculpture has previously been exhibited in various public settings, and this is Jan’s favorite location for it to be seen and experienced.

ABOUT THE SCULPTOR

Jan believes that each piece is a three dimensional answer to a question. The question is simple but the answers are anything but simple, both in mental concept and in construction. Several of her forms have taken 2-3 years of mulling, envisioning, and sketching to find the answer.

Her first question she remembers working on was: “What happens when two ovoids of similar but disparate sizes intersect? What does that look like?” There could be many answers to that question, but hers came in the form of “Crescent”. She chose that they would join with the larger one forming an arch over the top of the piece.

Other questions Jan has asked are:

“What happens when you combine a rectilinear form with an organic one?” In this case, she chose to make the organic form negative space and remove it from the heart of the angular form. “Continuity” came into being.

“How does a form that curves back on itself resolve perfectly?” After years of reflecting on that, “Intersection” answered the question. Rather than become a spiral, it intersected with itself and stopped.

Jan’s favorite forms are the answers to these questions and are a single shape that has nothing extra, no adornment, no secondary forms, no distracting color or surface pattern.

In contrast to the singular forms, she creates bilateral pieces that she also finds satisfying in that each side reflects the other, creating a balance and intimate relationship.

Once she answers the original question, there are technical ones that often follow. “Can she engineer the form she sees in her head?” “It seems too large, or unbalanced, or has a tunnel through it’s center, or is so top heavy that the clay will certainly collapse” are just a few of the technical questions that come after she envisions the form. Usually with time and working with the sculpture in slow stages, the engineering and technical questions get answered.

Jan consistently creates all her original sculptures in water-based clay. She prefers a heavy grog body that allows for a uniquely textured finished surface. There is something about many of the forms that almost begs to be scaled up. This has been exciting for her in that they can become essentially a new piece in a new material and take on a new meaning. Bronze, Corten steel, and mild steel all give the sculptures a strong sense of permanence, while the clay pieces seem more delicate and more intimate.