Joy Adams taught all levels of painting during her 21 years of service at Ithaca College. Whether she was working with beginners or with more advanced students, she emphasized the importance of creative thinking and fostered observational skills that naturally transferred into students’ chosen professions.
She also acted as a conduit, using art instruction to make the seemingly impossible possible for the less naturally gifted and to guide and inspire other students to pursue their passion at art colleges or graduate schools. Adams’s most important contribution to the Ithaca College community has been her “Mad Sally” paintings, which came into being through a stubborn resistance to conformity and a consistently tenacious work schedule in her studio -- a place her students visited regularly. She took students to the Reconstruction Home (now Beechtree Care Center) and to other nursing homes to draw the residents. This proved to be a treat for the residents and a learning experience for the students. Adams also founded and managed the art department’s artist lecture series for several years. She continues to work long hours in her studio, as she anticipates a prestigious one-person exhibition of her Mad Sally paintings in 2008.
