Joyce Ellen Weinstein, Where People Wish To Go, Their Feet Will Take Them, 1/1, 2026, Paper mache ink wood acrylic photo montage

I have always been interested in the mystery of human behavior, how and why people do what they do to try to understand life, and what they (we) do to try to control the uncontrollable. From peoples earliest beginnings, from cave paintings to today, magic, religion, spirituality, art and alchemy have played a major part. 

The original Babylonian magic bowls date from the 5th to the 8th century CE and were inscribed with spells to ward off demons, some even had eggshells embedded in the clay. My bowls are made with paper mache, eggshells in some, wood, photography and other contemporary materials. The inscriptions in each bowl are borrowed from the Talmud, proverbs that have lived on through the ages and have become part of every day Western European thought. It is my contention that in our world today, we need all the help we can get.

-J.E.Weinstein

I am primarily a figurative painter. My interest has always been in people, who they are, how they behave, and what they look like. However, after relocating to Maine from NYC a number of years ago, the majestic beauty of Maine, its landscape and coastline overwhelmed me. Viewing and living within this beauty opened up a new world for me. I couldn’t help myself and produced a series of seascape and coastline paintings and prints observing the amazing beauty and overwhelming experience of being in raw nature. Now my goal is to incorporate my love of figures and the love of nature into the work - J.E.Weinstein

The works of Joyce Ellen Weinstein are concerned with the understanding of human relationships, beginning with ourselves and extending outward to include family, community, ethnicity, and nationality. Although at first glance the works of Joyce Ellen Weinstein appear disparate, after closer examination one can find her inspiration in the personal and emotional, as well as the interaction developed through self, family, and community - all of which are parts making up the whole of her unified body of work. Her works do not sentimentalize, but speak of the human measure and human condition. The works of Joyce Ellen Weinstein ask the universal question: "who am I and where am I going?"