Amy Joy Watson

Untitled, 2011, balsa, watercolor, thread, balloon via Amy Joy Watson

The central intrigue of Australian sculptor Amy Joy Watson’s works lies in the irony that transforming childlike dreams into physical reality requires an adult patience and refinement. The unwavering dedication and vision is palpable in viewing her latest group of sculptures, Big Rock Candy Mountain. The structure of her wildly jubilant world is comprised of multi-colored fine cuts of balsa wood, hand-stitched with needle and thread. Her choice to stain wood with watercolor in lieu of a palette of harsh neons and crisp acrylics serves to conjure images of faded alphabet blocks.

Another central contrast in Watson’s creations is their inherent structural allusions to something technological and futuristic; like architectural mock ups from another planet or time, that are constructed by hand out of the basest of materials. Analog materials of wood, needle, and thread are stitched into a digital Willy Wonka universe, as if a 21^st century Oompa Loompa's early 3D renderings of everlasting gobstoppers were blown up into an otherworldly scale, to be transmitted into a million little pieces through Wonkavision. A playful relationship between hard and soft, and jagged and round pervades her pieces. A geometric orb is tied to a perfectly spherical pink helium balloon. Hundreds of hard wooden panels take the form of a ribbon's organic drape.

There is something life-affirming is Watson’s sculptures. They are magical artifacts of an undying child-like imagination that matures into a dedicated artistic vision. She honors the spirit of her former self with tools she’s gathered along the way. In a somewhat literal representation of such, she constructs a winged clam-like cradle that holds a gobstopper candy. The luxurious and precious preservation of frivolity makes Watson’s work hard to resist.

See the Big Rock Candy Mountain gallery