I like the rather sardonic correlation with "Joy". The statues of the cows(?) with party hats on does depict joy well but in a off-handed, semi-tongue-in-cheek way. For me the only minor quibble is in the DOF for the distant cow... the loss of focus on that image was a little distracting to me. But overall very very nice!

Smart use of DOF. The grin on the hats is a bit frightening for me. I guess it would communicate joy much stronger if I knew the story behind the photo.

This is a very unique interpretation of the theme and I like it!

Yes these are inanimate objects, but you have still managed to capture the feeling of "joy" with them, and in any case, it made me smile as soon as I saw it, so I think it's relevant. And they are sort of "personified" by the party hats.

Plus the selective focus technique is very cool, and executed very well here which gives this way more impact than if it had just been a studio shot with everything in perfect focus. I am sure somebody will probably make a comment like "portions of the subject are not in sharp focus" which, thinking about it, is making me smile even more because it is obvious that that's your creative intent :)

It's a nice image, but I don't see the joy, even though there are party hats. Maybe it's because there's no human element?