Art Chowder September | October 2017, Issue 11 | Page 12

B
elief in oneself is crucial
to success—this could make
or break a situation. The
process of building a clien-
tele and following for your
artwork can take years. The
artist has to hurdle self-es-
teem issues hindering the
transition and not be at odds
with himself. A supportive
atmosphere of friends and
family helps also.
Common ground for the hob-
byist and professional artist
alike is the passion to create.
Both create art because they
have to, because to deny
artistic expression is to deny
part of themselves. “When
paintings get purchased,
others are able to take my
creations and a piece of me
home with them to enjoy.”
Joe’s art has an old-world feel
and depicts Native Amer-
icans, pioneers, mountain
men, trappers and wildlife.
He takes all of his own pho-
tographs, which he attaches
to his easel for painting. He
travels once a year to Kansas
or South Dakota, where a
group of Native American
models pose in regalia for
photographs by artists. He
also researches black and
white photos of the past for
the face features that fit his
works-in-progress. Technolo-
gy allows him to take pieces
of different photographs and
meld them together to create
his ideal image.
12 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE
“Over the past 130 years,
standards in art have been
reduced to expression and
relativism over sound
method and visual excellence.
Society has been convinced
that representational academic
art is somehow intellectually
inferior, outdated and
irrelevant when compared to
modern or abstract art. Worse
yet, we have been conditioned
not to question.”
-Joe Kronenberg