Cove Gallery

Joyce Utting Schutter

Joyce is a native New Englander, born in Boston and raised in Guilford, Connecticut. She spent two decades in the Midwest, working as an artist, teaching, and raising a family. She studied papermaking under Timothy Barrett (2009 MacArthur Fellow) at the University of Iowa, where she earned an MFA in Sculpture (1997) She taught drawing, sculpture, painting, ceramics and graphic design at Iowa Central Community College. Her sculpture experience ranges from cast iron, bronze, and clay, to welded steel, fiber, and paper. Her unique method of sculpting with sprayed paper pulp is described in Volume 13, No.2 of Hand Papermaking and in The Papermaker's Companion by Helen Heibert. Her work has been featured in Artistry in Fiber, Vol. 2: Sculpture (©2017, Schiffer), FIBER ART NOW Magazine (Fall 2015), Contemporary Cape Cod Artists: On Abstraction by D. Forman (©2015, Schiffer), and in 500 Paper Objects (©2013, Lark Books). Joyce has been awarded a 2021 Fellowship Grant in Crafts by the Massachetts Cultural Council, Niche Awards in 2011 & 2014 by the Buyers Market of American Craft, and a SAC Award by the Society of Arts & Crafts in Boston. Her work has been exhibited internationally. Joyce begins each sculpture by welding a thin skeleton of carbon steel, or by constructing one of wood. She overlays this with a hand-stitched fiber substrate. Many layers of sprayed or hand applied paper pulp, often interspersed with organic materials, imbue each piece with a life of its own. The fascinating chemistry of paper forges the elements together without the use of foreign chemicals or glue. The color on her pieces is either pure dry pigment, watercolor, or encaustic. Joyce's Artist's Statement reads: "Every life touches another. From the microscopic to the cosmic, we are intertwined. The beauty and the imperative of this interconnectivity is a major theme in my work. Here on Cape Cod, surrounded by so much that bears witness to this relationship, I am constantly inspired. In these times when so much threatens to break down this balance, I feel a growing responsibility to incarnate these concerns in my work. Often when creating a piece, I attempt to capture some of what I see as the visual music of the world around me, synthesizing a harmony of natural and human design. "