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Izzy McRoberts

@bones.mcjones

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Mixed media story telling
VCU Craft Alum
11 mo Pocosin Arts Resident🏘️

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Immaculation

Chair: poplar, basswood from @lindsay.voe 🥹, milk paint, tannin reactive stains

Ottoman: milk paint, spalted and curly maple mostly from @woodcraftofrichmond 🗣️🗣️

Wall hanging: catalpa from @urbanforesthardwoods ‘s donations to the department🫶, milk paint, tannin reactive stains

The human personification of Ouroboros as the perfect eternal loop, as a perfectly encased cycle of creation and destruction. It is fate, destiny, the cosmos, the inevitable, a harmonious contradiction.

Snakes are the only fruit borne by this tree- the temptation leads to knowledge only of more temptation.

These are the last pieces made before I graduated from the @vcuartscraft program a few weeks ago😢. So thankful for all the people I met and things I learned during these 4 years, and while it’s sad to say goodbye I’m excited for the so much more that comes after. While I’ve been sticking around the theme of the inevitable, the insatiable, and their destruction, I’ve been toying with works that are not just thematically cohesive to a series but physically cohesive to each other. This wall hanging, chair, and ottoman trio embodies something slightly different in each object. There are so many people I could thank for helping to shape me and my work into what we are today but extra thanks to @hillary.waters for helping to guide these pieces through a hectic spring senior studio, and to @annie_evelyn_furniture and @dotanappel for all you’ve done for the wood department!!!!

#furniture #sculpture #craft #woodwork #surrealism by @bones.mcjones

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5 months ago

You Look Like the Perfect Fit

Poplar, bass wood, maple, and walnut. Hand spun wood shavings as rope, fire and tannin reactive finishing for color.

About an unavoidable cycle of destruction by the self or by what feels like some primordial force. About a need so strong it suffocates the limbs. The embodiment of the cycle of carnage inflicted by the insatiable.

Created in tandem for my advanced furniture + wood independent study finals, this set of vaguely related looking wooden human girls doubles as ‘functional’ chairs. The first girl- made of bass wood and wearing a long skirt- bore the same wounds as her pants wearing poplar counterpart. A set of disembodied hands bandaged her right foot, while her bandaged right hand hovers apathetically. A slightly bowed head and reclined backrest create a mildly more comfortable seat and a timid figure. Her poplar sister(?) sits on a humble rock shaped lump, with bulging and almost gangrenous appendages. The wooden thread cutting off the circulation to the short haired figure’s right hand and foot acts almost as an antithetical tourniquet. Inspired initially by the potent metaphorical imagery of blood loss and the tourniquet in media like “Girl In Need of a Tourniquet” by Merri Lisa Johnson and its reference in the song “Save Me” by Aimee Mann. This tourniquet does not stop blood loss, it stops blood circulation- an implement used for healing is creating its own injury. With a high held head, inclined backrest, and low height, this seat is less comfortable than its long haired sister. The functional aspect of these girl chairs also manipulates the inherent dynamics of power and comfort implied by chair function. I ❤️ 🪑s!!!!!

I learned so much about like…. Everything….. while making my beautiful daughters and thank any and everyone involved in some of the at times sketchy team work they required!!!!

#furniture #fineart #woodworking #craftsmanship #sculpture by @bones.mcjones

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10 months ago

Introducing Emerging Artist-in-Residence Izzy McRoberts!

@bones.mcjones

Izzy joined us in early September and will spend 11 months at Pocosin leading community classes, expanding their practice, assisting in general campus operations and being an integral part of our 2027 Summer On-Campus workshops. Izzy McRoberts is an east coast artist and an active member of the broader Craft community. McRoberts completed a BFA in Craft and Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2026. After moving around the country throughout their youth, Izzy’s work now focuses on universal experiences of hurt, healing, and change. With a background in illustration, their works use imagery of human anatomy and subtle gore to facilitate both confrontation and connection. McRoberts’s interactive work combines both sculpture and function through woodworking/ furniture design with occasional fiber, metal, and found object accents. Izzy has shown work in galleries including @almas.rva , @black.iris.social.club , and @artworksrva where they were awarded 2nd in show. They recently completed a 2026 Summer Workshop Assistantship with the @woodschoolmaine before coming to Pocosin. by @bones.mcjones

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21 days ago

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7 months ago

Disparate

Chandelier with careful items and an upside down box just out of reach.
About a need so strong it destroys, deconstructs. About a reaching so intense it breaks the body into disparate anatomy.

Made this chandelier hanging for wood bending class + turning and surfacing study🤭. Intended to experiment with different forms of texture, light, color, linkage, and everything. Learned so so much from this😁😁😁

#art #artstudent #artist #craft #craftanddesign #design #furniture #sculpture #furnituredesign #wood #woodworking #carving #fineart #surrealism #woodturning #woodartwork #woodcarving #functional by @bones.mcjones

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a year ago

The Constant Need

2025, Poplar, bass wood, milk paint.

A pair of pieces I got to make in a week long workshop @pocosinarts (through work study🙏🙏🙏) with @teresaaudet instructing! Had a wooooonderful time being encouraged and excited to experiment with combinations of intuitive and technical practices. I’m beyond thankful for this experience and the amazing people I got to meet. Took me a bit longer than a week to finish but I’m sooooo happy with the results.

The bottom layer of the face box was made with brick lay/ sorta segmented turning techniques. The hinges are (mostly) hand carved with wooden dowel inserts. Vaguely inspired to make a wooden book, and include a colorful narrative.

Generally about the inexplicable need to do something, the perspective of the perpetrator, and irrational rationales.

#woodworking #pocosin #pocosinarts #craft #woodworker #artist #bookmaking #artbook #carving #woodcarving #handtools #milkpaint #surrealism by @bones.mcjones

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a year ago

Clementine

A darling and a downfall
An idol and a villain.

2025, Marble and acrylic ink sculpture.

Very thankful for this foray into stone carving with @ianlcswordy instructing at @the_carving_studio this summer!! I absolutely loved being able to apply my affinity for carving to a new medium and will surely do it again one day.

#stonecarving #stone #mason #sculpture #craft #marble #masonry #stonework #art #artist #artstudent #carving #craftsmanship #surrealism by @bones.mcjones

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a year ago

Subvinere

About refusing to forget or to be ashamed. About healing but never quite being the same inside or out. Using a triptych of metaphorical imagery of being kidnapped and freeing oneself, along with a kidnapping supply slot to provide an altar to healing and- at times- unhealthy preparation.

18x 18x 20” ext cabinet, 16.5 x 16.5 x 15” marquetry box

Exterior cabinet: Ash frames and legs, poplar and soft maple panels, soft and hard maple carved door, veneered ply bottom panel, fabricated brass handles, steel and brass prefab hardware, found antique brass hooks, wool felt padding, sisal rope, childhood Swiss Army knife, polycrylic, and paste wax.

Interior box: MDF body, various donated veneers for int marquetry, tiger maple and poplar veneer for top bottom and ext, painted removable warm battery light.

This project had maaaaany unexpected challenges that taught me a lot. I befriended the table saw, learned how to hand saw without hitting my fingers, perfected my marquetry strategy, played a lot of games with the table and multi routers, hurt and healed the domino machine, etc etc. 45 and 90° angles and I were not friends before this but their utility is certainly growing on me. I learned a lot about frustration, acceptance, limitation, and comraderie. The majority of this project was finished for my casework final in the VCU woodshop (@woodatvcu 🤓) but fully completed in the @visartsrva shop!!! Thanks to @born.tofrolic for helping me out at visarts, @annie_evelyn_furniture for explaining how to actually do this, and @elsiiedagostiino for saving me w extra poplar veneer🫡.

#wood #woodwork #woodworking #woodshop #cabinetry #marquetry #sculpture #craft #design #furniture #vcuarts #craftsmanship #woodcarving #hardwood #art #artist #artstudent #multimediaart #brass #metalwork #metalsmith #fineart by @bones.mcjones

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a year ago

Ones We Forgot

Found brass chain attached to pendant, surrounding display made up of similar found brass chains and other utilitarian found metal objects, dye formed, hand formed/ chasing + repousse formed copper body parts, enamel and misc underglaze applied to copper then prong set to back plate, S hooks attaching body parts to allow for customization, “Remember Innocence” stamped into back plate with trailing holes drilled under hidden parts of back plate, all sand blasted/ matted texture with paint remnants, copper plating, dirt, and fire scale adorning the layered chain

Something about metal to me begs to have a face imprinted into it, to capture the soft ephemeral nature of humans but particularly infancy in this hard, unchanging medium. Babies and dogs have lately for me become communicators of sorrow, memory, cruelty, hope, duality, primordial animalistic instinct, purity, etc. Dogs turned into pets, babies and toddlers, both helpless in their reliance on authority, an owner or parent, unable to contribute materially or with words to their relationships, pure and animalistic in that, both the sweetest or saddest creatures. They can be vessels to communicate human nature- they don’t know how to hide, how to charade or hold facades, they don’t know when to lie and how not to tell the truth.

I have been tasked repeatedly this semester to ask why I or anyone makes things or art, and while I’ve rarely felt without an answer to these questions, I can better understand the phrasing, the nuance within my own justifications and explanations. While I would never claim this piece to be my magnum opus, it holds authenticity to me. I want my work to break down the expectations and facades that hold us captive- to depict pain, sorrow, suffering, and hope not in glorification but in honesty and acceptance. To be ashamed of and hide one’s pain is to salt the wound, to salt the earth and unintentionally leave it to fester in the quiet injuries of those around you.

This, because of all its roughness and bulkiness and ‘ugliness’, is one of the few pieces I’ve started wearing casually. Made in lieu of expectation or audience, to make me feel comfort & joy. by @bones.mcjones

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a year ago

Recents in progress + sale work + samples….. by @bones.mcjones

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a year ago

Provise

About preparing for the future- the worst- to protect yourself, and the pain caution can cause you.

A hidden key reminiscent of childhood puzzle boxes, with an old keychain and accessories inside.

6 x 6.5 x 9” Oak box, donated veneer for marquetry panel, some hand fabricated some prefabricated brass hardware, red dye, sentimental objects.

#woodwork #woodworking #marquetry #parquetry #cabinetry #casework #fingerjoint #wood #woodfurniture #woodworker #dye #veneer #woodveneer #oak #surrealism #artist #artstudent #brass #handmade #handfabricated #craft #craftsmanship #craftanddesign #furniture #furnituredesign #lock #puzzlebox #metalsmith #multimedia #sculpture by @bones.mcjones

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2 years ago

Paparazzi

24 x 16”
Poplar, pine, milk paint, chalk paint, felted wool

A very late but finally finished table from @penlandschool ‘s annual table in a day🪑🚪🛏️🪟

#craft #craftanddesign #woodworking #woodwork #lathe #woodturning #milkpaint #chalkpaint #furniture #design #furnituredesign #poplar #pine #wetfelting #felting #wool #sculpture #artstudent #colorway #colorblock #pastel #surrealism #coquette #stylizedart #style #table #handmade #craftsmanship #rustic #americana by @bones.mcjones

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2 years ago