During the early 90's, Joyce produced a series of abstract paintings, "The 30 Squares", on '9 ounce cotton duck' canvas, utilizing oils by the palette knife, which she would interweave at speed with a quick drying very high quality acrylic paint obtained from end of production left-overs at animation studios were she free-lanced as a cell-painter.
This type of action painting, occuring on her roof-top studio in Bonnington Square, London, implied composing with outdoors elements and weathers calling for the use of an orange duvet-fitted body suit in the winter, bikinis in the heat of the summer and at times, at night, 2 500 watts lights borrowed from her husband's filming equipment.
Energy, embodied in the resurrection of the memory of an atmosphere, a location, a feeling, an encounter, would freeze on the canvas when the fluid acrylic ceased to play with the rich oils, and the painting, regardless of size, had to be completed in one session.
Consequently, Joyce would dress each one of her squares individually by sculpting their respective frames with mixtures of strengthened plaster of Paris, animation acrylics and a great variety of materials lending their intrinsic characteristics to the texturing and shaping of the "garment".
In this way, the frame, far from locking the painting against it's receiving wall, would further express it's natural impulses and intrinsic drives, allowing it to 'live' and exist in it's unique and ultimate truth within the surrounding space.
Some of these paintings are in the USA, in Ireland and in other parts of London. The rest remain in Joyce's possession.
They have been exhibited in South London on 2 occasions in the mid-90's, and individually during open studios at the Lewisham Art House, London.