ArtPrize 2025: Joy Belanger, ‘Whispering Hope’

3 Oct. 2025

By Justin Tiemeyer - Contributing Writer

“Whispering Hope” is a ceramic sculpture made by Lowell artist Joy Belanger, and it is currently on display at the Arts Marketplace, at Studio Park (121 Ionia Avenue SW, Suite 125). It depicts a small woman whispering into the ear of a large woman.

“It becomes a little bit political with her, which is not usually where my work is,” Belanger said. “I started building her in November, right after the election. She kind of came from, first disappointment and anger, and fear over the outcome for me. I was feeling kind of hopeless and looking at my daughters and thinking, gosh, what’s the world going to be like for them?”

What came next was a deep feeling of connection, connection with the women of the future, the very women who she worried might face such an uncertain time, and connection with the women of the past. “I just felt this big push of hope,” Belanger said. “Women have fought for things before and may have to do it again, but it’s possible.”

This idea of connection, of a woman from another time whispering in your ears and encouraging you to move forward, helped Belanger out of her slump. What started in a deep depression about the future of the nation, slowly started sounding more and more patriotic.

“It means freedom for my children to be who they are authentically and freely in a country that has been getting closer and closer to allowing people to do that but has now taken steps backwards,” Belanger said, “freedom to achieve the things that interest them and motivate them, so they could just live fulfilled lives.”

Since her daughters were born, Belanger’s day job has been caring for, and homeschooling, her children. This year, two of them are going to start public school, and her oldest daughter is a senior. This will allow Belanger to spend much more time in the studio, like back in the day, when she got her bachelor’s degree in ceramic sculpture at Sonoma State University in California.

Belanger has been gearing up to this since 2021. Raising little kids did not make it easy to work with clay, but now her basement is free and empty, and she has a big studio to use. It is not as if Belanger gave up art altogether while her kids were little. That would be an unfair characterization. Belanger still made crafts, on her own and with the kids. She still enjoyed putting things together, but now that she has gotten back to sculpting, she feels like she has really found her voice.

The sculptor Michelangelo is well known for characterizing sculptors as people who can see their subject within their medium. He is quoted as once saying, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” Belanger, by contrast, is more of a process sculptor. She likes to play with clay, using stencils, found objects, and various textures. “I love to use bubble wrap,” Belanger said. “I love that texture.” Unlike Michelangelo, she prefers building up rather than cutting away, a benefit clay provides that marble does not.

Since Belanger’s daughters were so influential on “Whispering Hope,” the Lowell Ledger asked if the reverse was true; if Belanger’s art was equally influential on the development of her daughters. “My daughters are catching the bug,” Belanger said.

Belanger has a corner of her studio that functions as a craft area for her daughters, but all three of the girls have already shown interest in the fine arts, as well. Her youngest paints a lot, whereas, the older two tend to do more clay. When the younger girls went to camp this summer, they had no shortage of options for activities, and, out of everything, they chose pottery.

“It was kind of nice for me that they chose that,” Belanger said. “It’s really a beautiful time when everyone’s down here, and we’re working, and it’s quiet. It’s really my favorite time. It’s peace where there’s not always peace.”

Joy Belanger’s ceramic sculpture “Whispering Hope” is currently on display at the Arts Market at Studio Park (121 Ionia Avenue SW, Suite 125), and its Vote ID is 19528. For those interested in following her work beyond ArtPrize, she has a website called 3-trees-studio.com and an Instagram handle @3_trees_ceramic_studio.