Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Page 41
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
Page 45
Page 46
Page 47
Page 48
Page 49
Page 50
Page 51
Page 52
Page 53
Page 54
Page 55
Page 56
Page 57
Page 58
Page 59
Page 60
Page 61
Page 62
Page 63
Page 64
Page 65
Page 66
Page 67
Page 68
Page 69
Page 70
Page 71
Page 72
Page 73
Page 74
Page 75
Page 76
Page 77
Page 78
Page 79
Page 80
Page 81
Page 82
Page 83
Page 84
Page 85
Page 86
Page 87
Page 88
Page 89
Page 90
Page 91
Page 92
Page 93
Page 94
Page 95
Page 96
Page 97
Page 98
Page 99
Page 100
Page 101
Page 102
Page 103
Page 104
Page 105
Page 106
Page 107
Page 108
Page 109
Page 110
Page 111
Page 112
Page 113
Page 114
Page 115
Page 116
Page 117
Page 118
Page 119
Page 120
Page 121
Page 122
Page 123
Page 124
Page 125
Page 126
Page 127
Page 128
Page 129
Page 130
Page 131
Page 132
Page 133
Page 134
Page 135
Page 136
Page 137
Page 138
10 already familiar with the fabled Lipton interviews and was game as he had been in the past when it comes to intimate inquiry though with a caveat that none of it could be shared. He listened as carefully to his own answers as I did bemused by some aggressively definitive about others delivering each almost like a challenge with a decisive and self-confident authority. Some of his choices now listed with his permission are worth noting for the record if only because they were so unexpected a favorite poet was e.e. cummings a favorite painter was Albert Pinkham Ryder and amongst the most important American legal reforms he chose the child labor laws enacted by Theodore Roosevelt. The unexpected aside it came as no surprise that with a daughter named Scout he selected as his penultimate hero Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. As countless devoted readers already know Atticus is a man of quiet resolute integrity coupled with an intelligence that serves a deep empathic heart for the human condition regardless of race or gender. It is a book that brilliantly profiles a man not only of personal faith humor and familial devotion but a man who is at the same time a solitary soul filled with a pathos that comes from having clear eyes and a full heart in a southern community poisoned by prejudice. For Joe - and he is hardly alone - the figure of Atticus Finch is an unimpeachable beacon of good intent and the physical embodiment of a man whose moral compass is set in the fixed direction of living a good and principled life. In short a life worth dying for. The creative byproduct of a life lived with this rigorous tenor is often the stuff that creates the very culture that we clamor to consume. Its honest. Its relevant. Its self-reflective. In candid and self-effacing moments Joe has told me more than once that he doesnt believe that his art or any art for that matter can and will change the world. By the same token he is the first to admit that in the act of making art he has better been able to confront the issues of death and the fear of personal loss that preoccupy him. That alone seems worth the price of admission and Joe seems aware that he is fortunate to have found a language that he continues to learn in his search of increased fluency. As much as his artistic language can be described as a deeply and often opaque personal exercise his artwork also displays a desire to connect with a shared public consciousness sometimes to a fault. There is an undeniable intention to find a more common less complex vocabulary through a lexicon of recognizable and often appropriated images which by default has the potential to reach a wider more eclectic and dare I say less aesthetically informed audience.