Artist Roster

Born in South Philadelphia, his family of 5 moved to New Jersey when he was 3 years old. Joseph began drawing in earnest at six and in love with his second-grade teacher. She encouraged children's art, fawning over crayon and poster paints alike. In order to get her attention, he drew more and more. Eventually his parents, other members of his family and friends began to take notice. Since then, he's never stopped making images. (Except for a six-month period in 1979 when he took a motorcycle trip north through the Rocky Mountains and south down the California coast.)

Joseph moved to Georgetown, Delaware in September of 2018. He's also lived and worked in New Jersey, Maryland, Texas, California, New Zealand, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Joseph came to work with polymer clay through his wife. She is also an artist, and for a time created polymer clay jewelry. Previous to their move to Delaware, Joseph had a large studio that allowed him to create in a large range of sizes and materials. In their plans to downsize with the move, he realized he would have to change  materials and methods to accommodate the new reality of a studio with only 1/3 the space of the former. Polymer clay was the perfect choice. Its capabilities enable him to create in 2 or 3 dimensions. It has a full spectrum of color, including transparency. And when fired, has a permanency that is practically open ended. Approximately 90% of the artists creating with polymer clay create jewelry. Joseph thought the time was right to expand its visual range.

Joseph's family was Catholic. Religious imagery was in the house and on Sundays, in church. Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael, and El Greco were among the images in their big, illustrated family Bible. At church on Sundays, he remembered always wanting to sit in a pew the had a stained-glass window at its end in order to enjoy the colors close up. He also took pleasure in the stations of the cross bas-reliefs on the wall and the larger statues by the altar. His high school years were spent in what was then a rural area of Southern New Jersey. Knowledge of the fine arts was limited at best. No artists in his extended family. Little interest with any of his friends. His parents had purchased a Colliers Encyclopedia, which helped. His art teacher, Mrs. Daley, and her art class influenced him greatly. It was her large format art books of impressionist painters, or Picasso, Matisse, Braque, and others that helped define the rest of his life. Joseph also remembers failing Spanish and having to go to summer school. His summer school teacher recognized Joseph's attraction to art and, with his parents' permission, took him and a few other kids to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. His first of many, many visits to come.
Who inspires Joseph today? He says, "I like the word "inspire". It can mean breathing in. And that's what I do daily. As I'm creating my own pieces".  He  listens to podcasts and videos about Art from all over the globe. A few are, "The Art Angle", "talk ART", "Art2Life", and "The Large Glass".  He also goes to local shows and museums. Though he  travel less now that he is in his 70s.
Visually, he's inspired by Van Gogh, Matisse, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, and Thiebaud.

As with many materials that are not "typical" art materials, working with polymer clay sometimes challenging with  limiting parameters in the applications to shows or competitions. Typical questions such as "Is the work 3D or 2D?" Or a list of accepted materials that doesn't include polymer clay but does include clay ceramics.
There is also the  challenge of creating larger objects. Due to constraints in oven size occasionally the objects need to be pieced together after firing. He accepts the challenges  of course, and plans on purchasing larger ovens and the extra room to install them.

The most rewarding parts of Joseph's work is:

• looking at the ArtObject after firing and not wanting to change a thing. (Very rare.)
• Showing and sharing his work.
• Receiving feedback. Both positive and negative.
• Joseph has also written and published three children's picture books and isworking on a fourth.

Working alone and in a relatively isolated area as he does,  has its disadvantages. One of which is an exchange of ideas and thoughts with fellow artists. The DDOA Fellowship grant will allow him to reach out to other venues and interact more with the art community in general. But particularly in Wilmington.
Also having a solo show is important. It gives him a sense of completion and a chance to review his latest work with a wider point of view. Having a solo show creates a pressure moving and pushing him in a different direction.

Getting into "the flow", Art, ArtWork, and ArtObject.
For Joseph, the flow is something outside of him with which he sometimes can access and see images. It's this flow that  he recognizes as "Art". His practice/physical work is to realize the image He's seen, using any number of different materials. That's what he calls the "ArtWork". (A verb.) It's during this physical period that he can also ruminate about the image he has  accessed and possibly change it. The end result of access and physical work is the "ArtObject". This object is a way of sharing the total experience of accession and realization. Creating ArtObjects is an optimistic act, based in problem solving.