“My craft is my passport, my rocky road, my freedom trail, my dreams incarnate. When I brew beads and fibers, I concoct the fairytales my Godparents told me. I revel in“Da Blues” cascading from my Mama Lizzie’s Porkafying kitchen. Dad’s steel working, be moaning the n i**er this and that on the job. Every whisper is a stitch, a paragraph in my handmade albums.”

Joyce J. Scott is an African-American artist best known for her depictions of racially and politically charged subjects, crafted from bead work. Also working with jewelry and glass, Scott’s works are influenced by a variety of cultures, including Native American and African. “I believe in messing with stereotypes. It’s important for me to use art in a manner that incites people to look and then carry something home—even if it’s subliminal,” she has said of her work. Born on November 15, 1948 in Baltimore, MD, she is the daughter of renowned quilt maker and folk artist Elizabeth Talford Scott. First attending Maryland Institute College of Art for her BFA, she went on to receive her MFA from the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The artist currently lives and works in Baltimore, MD. Today, Scott’s works are held in the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., among others.

Click here to view Joyce J Scott’s CV

Courtesy of Mobilia Gallery

Hues, necklace, peyote stitch, glass beads, thread, wire, beaded hook and loop clasp, 10 3/4″ x 11″ x 3″, 2023

Virgin of Guadalupe, Necklace, Peyote stitch, glass beads, thread, wire, 14″ x 9″, 2009

Blue face, necklace, peyote stitch, glass beads, thread, wire, 13″ x 8.5″, 2013

Thurnderstorm, woven glass beads, thread, 10.5″ x 9″, 2018

Red, necklace, glass beads, thread, peyote stich, 16.5″ x 9 1/8″, 2025