Adams' Statement

During the years 2003 to 2009, I completed a number of oversized paintings under the umbrella title of Mad Sally’s Marvelous Adventures, for which I was honored with the 2010 New York Foundation for the Arts Award. In that series I focused on my British heritage and the differences long felt and observed as both an immigrant and a citizen of the United States. This went to the heart of my thoughts about the paintings, which were a catalyst for the creation of an alter ego who bridges the divide between cultures. Mad Sally is a stand-in for the bawdy and eccentric in a world I once knew. She was deliberately created as a dream creature in the guise of an unapologetically aging British American.

Searching for the ineffable and focusing my ideas in the studio is equally true for the works on paper. My memories of English fields and countryside reshape what I see from my window. There is nothing unique about lavishly prickly weeds or trees dozing off in my backyard, unless I manage to bring something new to how I see them. The challenge is to avoid the predictable because predictability is about as welcome as a cold cuppa tea.

To paraphrase the painter Henry Koerner, the innermost secrets you cannot give away with words. If you could, you wouldn’t have to paint.

Joy Adams