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About

Artist Bio

Joe Rock Edwards has a BA in Art Education from East Carolina University and was a North Carolina State Certified Art Teacher with over 30 years of teaching experience. He has worked with children and adults with a variety of learning styles. He has developed teaching techniques that ensure the student will complete works of art they will be proud of even without the benefit of previous artistic study. Demonstrating for classes as well as designing sculptures that can be reproduced by other artists means Joe can design a project for classes that will align with topics and objectives for the course. Joe can capture the attention and mesmerize a class of students with his many anecdotes and board illustrations. Joe creates sculptures for the classroom to use as examples and has many videos that can be used either before or after residencies/workshops to enhance the presentation. In addition to teaching in the schools, Joe owns and operates White Rock Studio, LLC where he has produced and shipped hand-built clay sculptures with a staff of artists to retail stores across the US. Cracker Barrel was one of the best accounts.

Artist Statement

The perfection and expression of beauty in the natural world provides monuments to creation in both botany and zoology. This new awareness has evolved over the last three years as I consciously demonstrate the relationship between imagination and reality. Through the ebb and flow of my brain’s hemispheres, I interpret the forms of nature using a harmonious balance of shape. Each work aims to inspire visual poetry through process of logical development. I want to create a common bond between the art and observer. Anatomy and structure is the most perfect of machines and is the vehicle. The study of importance changes with every new sculpture. Each form finds a new boundary of beauty. I sculpt using expressive techniques and then refine the parts that seem most important. The necessity of abstraction is not to define a precise meaning but to let the viewer simply interpret the art. I am combining lines and shapes of the plant and animal forms with the colors and textures found in nature. The vibrant hues of life applied to abstract, impressionistic sculptures depict the essential creature. Sculpture without color is dancing without music. I am creating a body of work in clay that I believe is a bridge for art to the natural world.