Rather than capturing beauty in nature, Artist Joyce Vukela-Mayer captures beauty through nature by creating reactive paintings on metal. Joyce starts with sheet metal which is formed into a canvas shape. She then uses various chemicals, water, paint, pigments and time, and allows the environmental forces of nature to direct the path of her paintings, many of which have themes from nature in addition to being formed through natural processes like oxidation.
Transferable skills from all of her prior experiences combined are in play in the art she is creating. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA she developed a love for the visual arts and for the sciences. She was the Art Club President at school, and also took classes at the Carnegie Museum of Art. She went on to receive a degree in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and worked for IBM, after which she became President of JVM Homes of Lake Norman. According to Joyce, engineering which requires finding solutions to previously unsolved problems was instrumental in developing creativity; and homebuilding develops the ability to mesh meshing both the aesthetic and practical; while chemistry is used when creating the patina on metal. Joyce’s work has been exhibited in galleries in Mooresville, Cornelius, and Hickory, North Carolina, and has been collected throughout the US and internationally.
Joyce’s desire is that many people will be blessed through her artwork: through the beauty of the artwork itself; through the scripture references which have become the hallmark of her signature; and through the tithes to her church. Her mantra is “When God tells you to paint, then you paint.”
Joyce calls Lake Norman home. She and her husband reside in Sherrills Ford and enjoy boating, water sports, and enjoying the lake with friends. View more of her work here or follow her on Instagram
