I met Joyce on a corner in Gramercy Park with her dog.
Ask a New Yorker: Hi Joyce. Who is your friend here?
Joyce: This is Ethel, an English Bull dog.
Ask a New Yorker: Tell us about Ethel.
Joyce: Actually I’m fostering her. I like to foster dogs. I try to transition them to being an adoptable dog. A lot of times they come from traumatic experiences or they were rejected for whatever reason, or abused. Different reasons.
Ask a New Yorker: Is Ethel nearing the adoption stage?
Joyce: Well actually she had so many problems that I had her longer and longer so I ended up just keeping her and keeping her. So I’ve had her for two years now. So I’ve pretty much adopted her, but not officially.
Ask a New Yorker: So what do you do in the city?
Joyce: I’m a designer. My undergrad is graphic design. So I’ll do web sites and cd-roms and print, and my grad is industrial design. So I build furniture. I’m actually doing dog human furniture. One of things I want to work on was for Ethel, English Bulldogs. I’m trying to specialize in English Bulldogs. Clothing for them actually is hard to find because their bodies are shorter and wider, because of their roly-poly shape. So I’ve been working on clothing for Ethel. My neighbors underneath me were having problems because of her snoring. She was right against the floor and it was just like a freight train going through their apartment. So I started to develop a snoring-absorbing bed.
Ask a New Yorker: That’s classic. What’s your favorite dog store in the city?
Joyce: I tend to follow boutiques because they have unusual items. Trixie and Peanut is great for clothes. There are actually so many little stores, little boutiques. I also look for designers that are doing things. On line you can find a lot of people making things.
Ask a New Yorker: What’s your favorite dog run?
Joyce: I like Madison Square Park. It’s a good size. Thompson is nice because it is really big and it’s the first one, so it’s historical. Actually Ethel and I were walking on the West side, where dog runs are popping up all over, and they have pools. So I threw her in the water. There’s an interesting dog run on 23rd street on the West side. There’s this fake tree and they have these steps that go up to nothing.
Ask a New Yorker: I should have made you a New Yorker video profile. Your accent is wonderful.
Joyce. I’m Chinese, I’m all Chinese. It must be the accent and the way I dress and act. I’m from Tennessee.
Ask a New Yorker: What else about Joyce would you like to share?
Joyce: I’ve had lots of jobs. I was a cage dancer, go-go dancer and shadow box dancer, which I did in Tennessee. Once I came to New York I just started designing. I got sucked into the whole dot com thing. I came in 1996. So I’ve been here for a while.
Ask a New Yorker: Tell us about your tattoo?
Joyce: Well I did a lot of prints, I called it the penetration series, so I had a lot of abstract fish. Boney-type, sort of dead looking things swimming through very vulnerable objects. So that is why I have this tattoo.
Ask a New Yorker: Very cool.
Joyce: I just think it’s a great idea what your doing. I think it’s a great idea going and asking people random things on the street. But then I also think that particularly in New York you’ll find interesting people who will just volunteer information which will be like crazy weird things that you don’t even mean to ask for. And I think people are interested in what other people have to talk about.
Ask a New Yorker: Many thanks Joyce and it’s was a pleasure meeting you and Ethel.
