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Straube Center in the News One-time violinist finds her calling with art By Diana Pichardo The glow of a bright spotlight, the command of an audience and the challenge of center stage could have been integral parts of what Joy Kreves would have called life as a concert violinist. Instead, she is creating jewelry and works of art, and she couldn't be happier. The Ewing artist's art work has been featured in more than 100 exhibits and on Nov. 7, she added one more to that list. Kreves's work has been included in The Straube Center Fine Arts Show, which runs from Nov. 7 to Dec. 28 at the Straube Center, in Pennington. It features approximately 28 of her pieces Kreves's art features elements of nature captured in a modern-abstract form. She said her art focuses on energy. She often draws, paints or sculpts lattices, butterflies, daisies and other wildlife onto canvas, paper or ceramic. In this show, Kreves's new fascination with discs will be exhibited through paintings such as "Negotiating Through Various Frequencies and Wavelengths." She enjoys the energy that discs, or circles, contain, she said. "The whole thing with circles is, I used to hate circles, and then somehow I started doing circles," she said. In addition, the show will feature a number of Kreves's paintings that include lattices. "Geometric Diagnosis," illustrates an uprooted daisy painted in isolation on the right side, and a replica seen through a lattice on the left side. "Their Heads in the Clouds" features an ominous vision of birds of prey sitting on a tree, framed by a white shadowy lattice. Had Kreves made different choices in college, music could have been her bread and butter, not art. Kreves has loved the violin since she was a girl. When it came time to choose a major as an Illinois State University student, she was conflicted. Violin had been a regular pastime since she discovered the worn instrument in her grandmother's attic one day. She dreamed of becoming a concert violinist, but still loved to draw and paint. When she made the decision to pursue art, the artist in her finally began to relax, she said. "I felt so happy that I thought, 'This might be the right choice,'" she said. "It felt like it was going to be a great life," she said. After college, Kreves moved into a few lofts in New York City, waitressing and eventually working as a paste-up and mechanical artist for the American Journal of Medicine, all while making art. But, she gave up the city life after she married Jonathan Yavelow, assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences at Rider University, and made the move to Frenchtown. There she opened a gallery in a storefront that featured the work of local artists as well as her own, which ran until 1990. The couple moved to Ewing after daughter Ivia Sky Yavelow was born, and Kreves's basement became her art space. It was there that she created pieces like "Butterfly Effect," a favorite. The three-piece set features a blue sky and outlines of a few butterflies. It's named after the Chaos Theory, commonly explained by the example of how the smallest details like the flapping of a butterfly's wings can affect the weather in another part of the world. "I always think the smallest things do have an effect," she said. She doesn't really have too many goals for her art. "I'm just so happy doing it," she said. "I don't sit down and try to make goals. My goal is just to make the pieces." She doesn't have many limitations either. "I don't see how some people can just say, 'I'm a painter and stop there,'" she said. Her latest artistic endeavor involves a line of jewelry she calls My Muse, which can be seen on her Web site, joykreves.com. Some of the pieces include ceramic beads, pieces of wood and even feathers. Part of what she does is take ordinary items and make them into something unexpected, like photocopying uprooted daises and tracing over them to create etchings or paintings, some of which can be seen in the current show. Kreves has never regretted choosing art and through it has learned more about herself and the world around her, she said. "Art ties everything together," Kreves said. "It makes the world less disjointed." For more information, go online to joykreves.com. |
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