"I made June in memory of the mixed media artist and filmmaker Joyce June Wieland, who died of Alzheimer’s disease in 1998. She was my friend and teacher. I worked as her apprentice one summer in the early 1980s.
After Joyce died I was asked what it was like to know her. I found that difficult to express in words, she was such a fountain of imagination and inspiration. I was deeply saddened by her death. This wonderful mind and spirit went away and was lost. All that remained was our memories of her and her art. With June I tried to express visually what I couldn’t say with words. It is about my experience of knowing Joyce at the height of her creativity and during her demise. I used also some of Joyce’s motifs: the circles and curling lines that she loved.
I made June in a very intense 3-month period. I would often cry while working on it. In a way I felt the piece was making itself, like automatic drawing. I felt I was channeling something. The experience was cathartic. I felt more at peace with Joyce’s passing after it was done. Now, 17 years later, my mother Betty Ferguson has Alzheimer’s. Her middle name is also June. She was also an experimental filmmaker and one of Joyce’s best friends."
- Munro Ferguson