“In many of my installations, movement is a critical factor…the vessels have a continuous movement.” - Joan Webster-Vore

Intro Statement

My work—as well as my personal life and psyche—has been influenced by the Mid-Western landscape I grew up in. I have spent countless hours studying nature; trying to capture the ever changing, ephemeral quality of bodies of water or observing swaying acres of corn in the fields across the road from where I lived in Hudson, Iowa.  My many drawings and paintings are studies of natural phenomena which inform my mixed media work. My primary—and lifelong—focus as an artist has been to investigate the relationship between human endeavors and the natural world.

Exhibition History

AWARDS:

2018
- 40th Fine Arts Exhibition, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA / Second Place Award

2016
- 39th Fine Arts Exhibition, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA / First Place Award
- Area Show: 45, MacNider Art Museum, Mason City, IA / Excellence Award

2012
- Area Show: 43, MacNider Art Museum, Mason City, IA / Excellence Award

2011
- Iowa Crafts: 40, MacNider Art Musem, Mason City, IA / Best in Other Craft Media

2010
- 34th Annual Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition, Rock Island, IL

2009
- Biennial Quad State Exhibit, Quincy, Il

2008
- RIT/NTID, installation, Rochester, NY

2007
- Fiber Art International, Pittsburgh, PA / Josephine Cohen Peoples Choice Award

2005
- Iowa Crafts: 37, MacNider Art Museum, Mason City, IA

2003
- Iowa Crafts: 36, MacNider Museum, Mason City, IA

2002
- Who We Are Now: Who We Were Then, Hearst Center for the Arts, Cedar Falls, IA

2001
- Art Show 2001, Hearst Center for the Arts, Cedar Falls, IA
- 51st Annual Quad-State Juried Exhibition, Quincy Art Center, Quincy, IL

PUBLIC ART – COMMISSIONS & COLLECTIONS:

2011
- Black Hawk Creek, series, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA

2010
- Cycle of Corn, Expo Plaza Banners, Waterloo Center for the Arts, Waterloo, IA
- Art in Public Spaces, National Competition Finalist, American School for the Deaf, West Hartford, CT

2008
- Dance of the Ginkgo, National Competition, permanent installation, National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Rochester, NY

2001
- All Strung Up, Iowa State University Library, Ames, IA
- Water, Sometimes You See It…, Muskrat Hut, NIAC Community College, Mason City, IA 

1998
- Muskrat Hut Triptych, Waterloo Museum of Art, Waterloo, IA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2018
- Kansas City Artist Coalition, Kansas City, MO
- Clear Lake Art Center, Clear Lake, IA

2017
- Quad City Arts at the Airport, Moline, IL

2016
- Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, IA

2015
- Waldorf College, Forest City, IA

2012
- Iowa State Library, Des Moines, IA

2011
- Clear Lake Art Center, Clear Lake, IA

2009
- MacNider Art Museum (main gallery) Mason City, IA
- Soul Dance, Kristen Wigley-Fleming Gallery, Luther College, Decorah, IA

2007
- Recent Work: Vessels, Quad City Arts, Rock Island, IL

2006
- University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, Iowa City, IA

2005
- Waldemar A. Schmidt Art Gallery, Wartburg College, Waverly, IA

2003
- Passages of Time, Buena Vista University, Storm Lake, IA

2002
- River Arts Center, Clinton, IA 

EXHIBITIONS:

2023
- Thread, Pattern, Form: Work by Iowa Surface Design Association Artists, Gallery of Art, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA
- From Above, 4 person invitational, Hawkeye Community College, Waterloo, IA
- Rockford Midwestern Biennial, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL

2022
- Alternative Fiber, national juried exhibition, Louise Hopkins Center for the Arts, Lubbock, TX
- 42nd Annual Fine Arts Exhibition, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA
- Multi-Artist Show: All Fiber, Burlington Center for the Arts, Burlington, IA
- Art In the Time of Corona, online: Artsy.net, Dab Art Co., Los Angeles, CA/Austin, TX

2021
- Sioux City City Art Center Selects, Juried Invitational.  Sioux City, IA
- Compelling Ground, Invitational, Brunnier Art Museum, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
-  Sioux City Art Center SELECTS, juried/curated exhibition, Sioux City, IA
- Below, Above, Through and Beyond the Datum Level, Surface Design Association, surfacedesign.org
- AREA Show 47, MacNider Art Museum, Mason City, IA

2020
- A Portrait of Remarkable Women, Quad City Arts at the Airport, Moline, IL
- Women and Abstraction, Clear Lake Art Center, Clear Lake, IA 

2019
- Fiber Artists of Iowa, Grinnell College Museum of Art, Grinnell, IA

2018
- The Rockford Midwestern Biennial 2018, Rockford Museum of Art, Rockford, IL
- 40th Fine Arts Exhibition, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA

2017
- Biennial Juried Exhibition, Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, IA
- ArtPrize 9, Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Out and About, Quad City Arts, Rock Island, IL

2016
- ArtPrize 8, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Top 100/Top 25 in Installation
- 39th Fine Arts Exhibition, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA
- Area Show: 45, MacNider Art Museum, Mason City, IA

2015
- Midwest Summer: Light and Warmth, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA  

2012
- Area Show: 43, MacNider Art Museum, Mason City, IA
- 36th Annual Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition, Rock Island, IL

2011
- ArtStop Project Spaces, invitational, Des Moines, IA
- Regional Juried Exhibition VIII, Freeport Art Museum, Freeport, IL
- Iowa Crafts: 40, MacNider Art Museum, Mason City, IA
- Biennial Quad State Exhibit, Quincy, IL
- 35th Annual Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition, Rock Island, IL
- Biennial Juried Exhibition, Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, IA
- The Art of Women II, Henry Myrtle Gallery, Cedar Falls, IA

2010
- Biennial Juried Exhibition, Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, IA
- Object As Subject, University of Northern Iowa Museum, Cedar Falls, IA     
- 34th Annual Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition, Rock Island, IL
- Augustana College, Rock Island, IL

2009
- Sustainability, group exhibition, Wartburg College, Waverly, IA
- Biennial Quad State Exhibit, Quincy, Il
- Landfill Art, an artist reclamation project, Landfillart.org

2008
- Fiberart International:
•  The Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences of West Virginia, Charleston, WV        
                •  Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, NC

2007
- Fiberart International:
•  Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA
- We Protest:
•  Luther College, Decorah, IA
                •  Witter Gallery, Storm Lake, IA
                •  United World College, Montezuma, NM

2006
- Unrestricted, national juried exhibition, Florida Craftsmen, St. Petersburg, FL
- Guerrilla Art: Art as Activism, international juried exhibition, Altered Esthetics, Minneapolis, MN
- Rockford Midwestern, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL
- 60th Juried Exhibition, regional exhibit, Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, IA
- First Fifty, Hearst Center for the Arts, Cedar Falls, IA
- Americas 2000, Paper Works Competition, international juried exhibition, Northwest Art Center, Minot State University, Minot, ND
- 30th Annual Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition,  juried exhibit, Augustana College, Rock Island, IL

PUBLICATIONS:

2023
Stitched Journeys with Birds, by Martha Sielman. Schiffer Craft, ISBN: 978-0-7643-6692-5, p. 217

2023
The Iseminger Collection, The PAC&G Journal. UNI Gallery of Art, ISBN: 979-8-218-20593-5, pp. 50, 84, 85

2021
Compelling Ground: Landscapes, Environments, and Peoples of Iowa. University Museums, Iowa State University, pp. 106,112

2015
Ethnic Dress in the United States, A Cultural Encyclopedia, edited by Annete Lynch and Mitchell D. Strauss. Contributed essay. Roman & Littlefield, ISBN: 978-0-7591-2148-5, pp. 21- 24 

INTERVIEWED:

2022
Art and the Environment, interview by Amahia Mallea, Hearst Center for the Arts, Cedar Falls, IA

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