Joseph keeps her objects in whatever shape she found them: the silver unpolished, the pipe uncleaned. “For me it’s all about the story,” she says, “and the oxidation is part of the story of the object.” Part of her love of old, weathered objects goes back to Joseph’s childhood growing up in a rural small town in Rust Belt Pennsylvania. But there’s a deeper metaphor at play too, considering how much of Joseph’s work is re-creating old family photos. Excavating an old pipe isn’t so different from mining one’s past.
Before Joseph became known for her painterly felt tableaux, she worked as a textile designer and K12 arts educator for more than a decade. She started grad school in 2016 to pursue her own art, and completed her MFA two years later. From there she kept experimenting with material and form (including rocks, another favorite found object), and landed on portrait-like works of family and close friends made from felted wool. That was only three years ago. The adoring response was almost immediate.
Part of the allure of Joseph’s work is that it taps into both painting and sculpture while not being fully either. The detail she achieves is mind-blowing, as is the variety of texture. The wispy pull of the felt seems almost delicate, like it could blow away in certain places. In other spots it’s layered on thick, impasto-style. She knows a painter may take issue with calling these works paintings—but as she has said, they’re not not paintings.
