Jocelyn Braxton Armstrong

"Gesture is what interests me. Body language is beguiling. Gesture naturally conveys movement but can also be passive or strident, playful or seductive, regal and proud. Gesture tells a story.

I come from a background in fashion photography, so gesture and form are essential elements in my ceramic sculpture. Much of my work is figurative, but sometimes I explore abstract or biomorphic territory and vessels with roots in organic matter take on an expressive human quality. I delight in this ambiguity, this duality, and this transformation.

Using porcelain, forms are thrown, cut apart, altered and reassembled using black slip. The surface is sponged off, dried, then sanded, to enhance the “stitched effect of the scored black lines. I use these lines in an illustrative effect and sometimes the lines can express meaning.

Some sculptures are methodically planned, while others flow spontaneously from within. I remain open-minded, responding to my materials and the evolution of the creative process, searching for the unexpected in a sculpture. My newest body of work is more conceptual in nature. Influenced by my life experiences as well as a global feminist perspective, I explore the emotions of relationships, conflict, love, and family."

Jocelyn Braxton Armstrong

SELECTED AWARDS, GRANTS & HONORS

2012 Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: Feminist Art Base inclusion, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

2008 Artist Fellowship Grant, CT Commission on Cultural & Tourism

2008 Carol Eisner Award for Best Sculpture, 59th Annual Art of the Northeast,

Silvermine Guild Arts Center, New Canaan, CT (Juror, Thom Collins, Director, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY)

2008 “Emerging Artists: 10 Talents Turning Heads,” American Style, August issue

2008 2nd Prize, The Paradox of Water, Westport Arts Center, Westport, CT (Juror, Mary Sabbatino, VP/Partner, Galerie LeLong, New York, NY)

2007 Selected Emerging Artist of 2007, Ceramics Monthly, May issue

2006 The Mollie and Albert Jacobsen Award for Sculpture, 57th Annual Art of the Northeast, Silvermine Guild Arts Center, New Canaan, CT (Juror, Ben Barzune, Senior Associate, Knoedler and Company, New York, NY)

2005 Juried Artist Member of Silvermine Guild of Artists, New Canaan, CT

2005 Selected Radius Emerging Artist, Curatorial Review and Exhibition, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT

2005 Second Prize: Sculpture, Spectrum, New Canaan Society for the Arts, New Canaan, CT (Juror, Douglas K.S. Hyland, Director, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT)

2003 Selected Winner, The Big Show, Westport Arts Center (Juror, Adam Weinberg, Director, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY)

WORK EXPERIENCE / EDUCATION

1980 BFA, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

1981-2000 Freelance Fashion Stylist/Editor, New York, NY

1987-1992 Parsons School of Design Continuing Studies, New York, NY

2000-2005 Silvermine School of Art, New Canaan, CT

2009 Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Dear Isle, ME

2003-present Clay Art Center, Port Chester, NY