"The Reverend Joyce McDonald says a pastor once told her to "ask God what type of artist you are." She says God responded, "You're a testimonial artist." McDonald's testimonies come in the form of mostly unfired clay sculptures, sometimes embellished with glitter, nail polish, fabric, or paper towels. These figures are very small and simple (a mother and child, a woman praying) and almost naïve in affect (they carry titles like"
"Sweet Peace and Covered With Love), but don't let their modest appearance or diminutive stature fool you. The first major exhibition of her work, " Ministry: Reverend Joyce McDonald," at the Bronx Museum, glows powerfully with spiritual feeling and is one of the best shows of the year. McDonald's great theme is one common to both Christianity and art: that out of great suffering comes rebirth and redemption."
"McDonald's life was beset by addiction and abuse until she found religion in the 1990s and got clean. In 1995, she was diagnosed with HIV. In 1997, she entered an art-therapy program funded by the Elton John AIDS Foundation. While she had dabbled in art since she was a girl, it was this program that introduced her to clay. "I could see that spark in my artist's mind. And I could not stop," she has said."
Reverend Joyce McDonald creates mostly unfired clay sculptures—small, simple figures often embellished with glitter, nail polish, fabric, or paper towels—that function as visual testimonies. The work centers on spiritual transformation: out of addiction, abuse, and an HIV diagnosis, McDonald found recovery, faith, and artistic expression through an Elton John AIDS Foundation art-therapy program. The Bronx Museum exhibition radiates intense spiritual feeling. Pieces such as Family Grief and My Dad, My Hero address personal loss and pride, rendering grief, redemption, and inner change through intimate, almost naïve forms whose smiling faces convey the joy of rebirth.
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