Check out Joe Goodwin’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Goodwin.

Joe, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Grew up in Oklahoma, mother dragged me to the Baptist church and the only way to keep me quiet was to give me crayons and paper. I could escape by making an alternative world. Making art helped me understand not only my studies at school, but the world in general. It was a tool to cope with ADHD before there was knowledge of that.
Got an Arts and Humanities degree from Oklahoma State University BFA and was taught color and design by a faculty member who studied with Joseph Albers.

MFA @ University of Illinois where my work changed from super realism to abstract imagery. Moved to NYC after grad school in 1978. Became studio assistant to Leon Polk Smith in 1980. Worked as a visual merchandiser part time to pay rent, and eventually painting sales became majority of my income. Exhibited in Germany and Japan during the late 1980’s – early 90’s Moved to Berkshires in 2003

I was invited to be a plenary presenter at Art and Psyche, Sicily in 2015 http://www.artandpsycheinsicily.org/index.php/en/ The work and ideas of Carl Jung have been a strong influence on my approach to abstraction and this presentation helped me understand that better as I expressed it to others. It was a twenty-minute slide show and presentation of a paper that was essentially a life review. In the process of writing the paper, I discovered that each significant change in my work was related to an equally significant change in my life. The audience, which was made up of primarily Jungian Analysts and psychiatrists, was very open and empathetic to my images and talk. The presentations of other artists and creatives lent valuable insight to my conception and questions about the psyche and the act of making art.

My first museum exhibition was 2016 at the Berkshire Museum. Liminal Artifacts was a solo show of 16 paintings on canvas and panels, on view in the crane room from April 02 through June 19, 2016. The title of this exhibition was a response to the Art and Psyche Sicily conference called Layers and Liminality.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Like most artists, I started out drawing and painting subjects in nature and things personal to me. As I progressed and met the challenges of representational imagery, I was painting in a super-realist style by the time I went for a Masters in Fine Art at the University of Illinois. It was there that I met other artists who were painting abstractly, doing installation work and conceptual work. Also, at this time, I became aware of the work of Carl Jung and began to examine my beliefs about art, myself, and my role as an artist in the world. Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious fascinated me and I began to wonder if there was some sort of area of the mind that connected to a common reality and truth – a place where art comes from that we can access if we focus on it.

I stopped painting and explored a variety of materials and methods to locate my aesthetic and logic in a clearer and unbiased way. When I returned to paint and canvas, my imagery was abstract. As a student I understood abstraction to be a distortion or maybe an embellishment of reality. Now I see it as the essence and characteristics of reality, emotion, perceptions, etc. that becomes a vehicle for communicating in those realms. I have learned that my intentions are often just the starting point and that if I’m lucky, the work diverts into unknown, intuitive territory. A part of my psyche that I’m not in control of starts making decisions and taking action. I don’t always understand where it is going and want to control it which only creates angst. I often don’t like what it is developing, but eventually a work of art comes about that I can live with. Sometimes it gets painted over and other times I love it.

Travel has also been a big influence on my work and my first trip to Turkey in the late 80’s changed my work dramatically. Overall, I am very curious and intrigued with ancient sites and their mysteries. I’ve visited the Pyramids in Egypt and Mexico, Machu Picchu, and the Sacred Valley in Peru, Greece, Sicily, Rome, Israel, Cyprus, Morocco, Japan, and looking forward to the Yucatan Peninsula this winter. The experiential input from being in these places comes out in surprising and unpredictable ways through my work. Without intention, images evolve through color, texture, form and sensations of heat, dryness, etc. that identify a place, and with those elements the feelings and identity of that place become apparent to me and often to the viewer.

I make 90 per cent of my paints from dry pigments and polymer emulsions. Additives, including marble dust and silica give luminosity to the paint while eliminating the plastic look of acrylic and make the surface sand able. An average of 40 layers of paint with intermittent sanding compose the final surface of each painting. The imagery develops through an intuitive process of layering and sanding until a balance and harmony of color and form evolves.

Do current events, local or global, affect your work and what you are focused on?
None of us are immune to the disturbing machinations taking place in government, the world and society today. The news, social media and popular culture are constant reminders that the world is in turmoil. Going back to Jung’s idea of the Collective Unconscious, I think there is an internal level in each of us that harbors an awareness of these conditions that has a universal effect. As an artist, I have difficulty moving my attention and sentiments from current events to my studio. The frustration and often outrage follows me to work. Although I use mediation as a way to make the transition less direct, the negativity and uncertainty of world and national events creep in. I find myself working slower than before and having more difficulty resolving problems as they arise in the work. It recalls that old (but very true) cliché that art imitates life. Ultimately, I believe that the internal energy produced by these concerns will be channeled into my painting in a productive way. Beyond the influences of politics and social issues, artists are dealing with a shifting market. Galleries are closing due to high rent and operational costs except for the blue-chip galleries who cater to the investment-oriented collectors. Those of us who aren’t making investment art are pretty much left to our own devices for promotion and generating our own sales. Social media and online venues have picked up some of the slack but there is still a lot of adjustment taking place and it can be exciting. Just recently, I attended a talk with Hrag Vartanian and Sharon Louden https://hirshhorn.si.edu/explore/hyperallergic-hrag-vartanian-and-sharon-louden/at LabSpace in Hillsdale, NY https://www.facebook.com/LABspace-620894894642447/where they addressed these very issues and had some interesting ideas that artists can incorporate to continue their work and survive. I don’t think the role of artists has changed fundamentally, but it is certainly rolling with the changes of civilization, and our part in generating a new paradigm will be important as it always has been throughout history.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My work can be seen online at www.jgoodwinstudio.com and on social media https://www.facebook.com/JoeGoodwinstudio/ On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/joegoodwinstudio/ Group exhibitions at The Attleboro Arts Museum and the Berkshire Museum include my work this summer but will be finished by the time this article is published. No exhibitions are planned for the rest of this year. I offer studio visits by appointment (through the contact link on my website.

Solo exhibitions include The Berkshire Museum, New York, Aspen, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Santa Fe, Lenox and others. Goodwin’s work is included in many corporate and private collections in the USA and abroad. Museum collections include Bartlett Art Center OSU, Berkshire Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Flagstaff, Neuberger Museum SUNY Purchase, NY, Decordova Museum Lincoln, MA, Naples Museum of Fine Art, Naples FL, The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jgoodwinstudio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joegoodwinstudio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoeGoodwinstudio/

Image Credit:
Joe Goodwin

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