24 western tidewater living
catching up with
Alexis R. Joyner story by Stephen Cowles
I
’m forever working on something. Sometimes three or four projects at once,” said Alexis R. Joyner. That something being the making of art — his profession and passion. Originally from Capron, Joyner chairs the Fine Arts Department at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina. While he’s involved with a few small projects at the moment, simultaneously, “what’s consuming my time is a veterans’ monument — not memorial — to be unveiled by July 4 at the Veterans’ Park in Fayetteville, N.C.,” the 55-yearold said. The piece is for the Veterans Hands Project, which involves casting hands of living servicemen. There will be 100, one for each North Carolina county. “I was responsible for 12 counties in the eastern region,” Joyner said. “Each county had to choose a primary veteran candidate. The main vet’s hands from each will be cast in bronze, those of supporters in special cement on a separate wall.” As reported by Elizabeth City’s newspaper, The Daily Advance, Joyner earned acclaim last winter for a series of clay sculptures featuring African-American women. The piece was called “Crowd Control.” The response was incredible, he said. “People were really, really moved by them,” Joyner said. “On opening night, I was flooded with all kinds of questions.” To be identified as an African-American artist “is not limiting at all,” Joyner said. “I feel that I try to communicate my experience as a human experience, which is universal.” One of his closest associates, Professor Drusiano Scerbo, described his colleague of 20 years as a reserved kind of fellow. “People have no idea of the sensitivity and knowledge he has,” Scerbo said. “He’s kind of a Renaissance Man. From music to poetry to sculpture, he has knowledge of it.” Joyner’s memory “reminds me of the old folks back in Italy. They keep track of the people they know,” Scerbo said. “Sometimes it’s so strange that two different people from two different cultures share the same quality of life.”
“That’s one thing that Joyner and I are trying to teach as well – connectivity,” Scerbo added. When they started at the university, there were just the two in the department. Today there’s a full-time staff of six. Joyner and Scerbo have worked together on projects, sometimes involving students. “We just rely on one another,” Scerbo said. “I’m fortunate to have met him, coming to the States and working with him.” Joyner spent his childhood in Southampton County, where his artistry has its roots. “I started drawing when I was about 2 to 3 years old,” said the son of the late Martha D. Whitfield and Jimmie William Joyner Sr. “I have older brothers who also drew,” he said. “As Artist Alexis Joyner, a Capron native, displays one of his works. soon as I found I could activate space, I was hooked.” “Over the years it has pretty much been allThat obviously wasn’t just a childhood pasconsuming,” Joyner said. “Of course, throughtime. out my life, when I’m not creating, I write po“I drew constantly ever since I was a child in etry. Mainly I write it for me.” elementary school,” Joyner said. “I took all the He’s had several readings down through the art I could take in high school, which was only years at open-mic poetry readings and similar three courses.” events. His undergraduate studies were done at VirThis writing has been further inspirational. ginia State University, and he graduated from “Sometimes the words will trigger an image, Norfolk State and Old Dominion universities, and an image triggers words,” Joyner said. concentrating in sculpture. He still works with clay in addition to wood, Today he has a master of fine arts degree. some stone and metals. All are challenging. He started teaching at Elizabeth City State “If it was too easy, I would probably stop,” he University in 1986 and still teaches sculpture, said. “I look forward to problem-solving. I wel3-D design and ceramics. come the challenge. That’s what kept me sort of “Mine is still pretty much hands-on,” Joyner sane over the years. It’s been a blessing to have said. my career and the thing I love as an outlet, you He emphasized the importance of his pasknow.” ← sion.