Creating personality animals in a loose, impressionist style, Joffa Kerr has been a sculpture student at the Scottsdale Artists School where she studied with sculptors Glenna Goodacre, Sherry Sander, and Kent Ullberg.

Southwest Art magazine editors named Kerr one of the top five Women Artists of 1997. Over the years, she has done commissions for the Nature Conservancy, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and most recently, for a commercial development in California. She finds inspiration for her wildlife sculpture just outside her Wilson, Wyoming, studio door.

Sources:
Wildlife Art
Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale, 2003

The playful antics of wild and domestic animals, a picturesque 70 acre homestead in the Tetons, and possessing a passion for animals are the inspirations behind sculptor Joffa Kerr's work.

Joffa's impressionistic style conveys the gestures and attitudes of her subjects, which create unique, often humorous personalities for her bronzes.

Kerr's formal education was at the University of Oklahoma, where she studied interior design, jewelry design, and painting, but it was not until attending a class at the Scottsdale Artists School and working with other noted sculptors that she considered three-dimensional work.

Her sculpting technique and interpretation of animals requires great concentration and quiet reflection. Joffa states: "The creative spirit needs time, quiet, and inspiration in order to emerge." With camera in hand, she observes and studies the animal, taking in the surroundings--animals and their environment.

Back in her studio, she searches for the feeling, emotion, and essence of the animal she wants to convey. Her desire is that with the finished piece, the viewer will physically touch and emotionally relate with her bronzes.

Joffa has exhibited at the Albuquerque Museum, Gilcrease Museum, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and the International Exhibit "Wildlife: The Artist View", organized by the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum.

Joffa Kerr was born in Nacodoches, Texas. She attended the University of Oklahoma and studied interior design and art. Joffa and her husband of 39 years, William G. Kerr, have raised four children, six dogs and numerous horses.

In 1982 Joffa began a serious art career and has since studied anatomy with several artists. She has attended a series of Scottsdale Artist School courses with noted sculptors Ken Bunn, Sherry Sander, Kent Ullberg and Glenna Goodacre. The artist admits to a certain affection for bears and other animals of large mass, which turned her attention to pigs, on which she bestows funky names such as Swinelet O'Hara. Her husband teases her about the current obsession, saying, "Honey, do you want to be known as a pig sculptor?" The good-natured Kerr responds with a laugh, "I don't care just so long as I'm known."

Her work is presently available in galleries in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming. Prior exhibits include the Albuquerque Museum, Gilcrease Museum and Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Joffa has done commissions for The Nature Conservancy, The Grand Teton Music Festival and Lori Corporation. Public and corporate collectors besides those just mentioned, include Nichols Hills Park, and The Williams Companies, Inc.

In 1987 the artist and her husband donated 250 artworks to what was then called the Wildlife of the American West Art Museum in Jackson Hole, WY. Not content with the status-quo, they were instrumental in launching a $10 million fundraising effort for a museum expansion in 1993. "All of our friends were artists, and we thought more people should see their work," says Kerr.

The museum, now called the National Museum of Wildlife Art, moved to its new 51,000-square-foot facility in 1994. With 12 galleries with changing exhibitions showcasing 2,200 artworks, the museum tells the story of the western frontier—the native cultures, wildlife, and landscape. "Some of our visitors have never been to a museum before, and we hope we're educating them," Kerr says. The museum's contribution to the cultural life of the Rocky Mountain region can be seen in the statistics: 2,200 members, 125,000 visitors annually, and education programs reaching 7,200 children.