Joseph Reeves: Art on the Road

Photo by Joseph Reeves



Joseph Reeves is a young emerging artist whose art springs from life on the road. The road is the setting of a novel in progress, "The Last Great american Novel" to be exact. The road is inspiration for tree sculpture, toothpick sculpture, and God only knows what else.

Often writers and artists have taken to travelling to find the thing that gives life to ideas and creativity. It may be too much of a cliche at this late hour, but yet another generation is going out on the road to find the inspiration apparently not found sitting behind a desk.

Reeves' overflow of writing and art could lead to something great one day or it could all just be lost to the road. Whatever the out come by be you gotta respect the kid for trying.

The art seen below is not from the road, but from the studio. More can be found at josepreeves.blogspot.com or
thelastgreatamericanjourney.blogspot.com






Spaghetti Sculpture

Satin Doll

I grew up near Fondulac Ave. It's a main vein of the city, cutting through the city's roughest neighborhoods on a diagonal. This area has always been working class. All the whites moved out when the city started forcing them to sell homes to blacks. In the late seventies my mom married my stepfather and bought a duplex on Locust, just down the street from Fondulac Ave.




There were store front churches and taverns on every other block. You could go to Big Mama's Fun House on Saturday night and The Temple for Jesus on Sunday. Immigrants ran the corner stores, but they never lived in the neighborhood.




On hot summer days the Satin Doll's Lounge's back patio would be open. You could see the patio area from the street. They had those old school oil drum barbecue pits smoking. Riding by on the bus I wondered what went on there. Were there half naked go go dancers with satin skin prancing around? That cool vibe faded slowly over the years, as times changed and the neighborhood slipped further into poverty.




There’s always been a hope that the area would somehow rise up. It is getting better further down the road and I think in a few years these throw backs to the seventies will be gone forever.

Words of Love

Video art of the day.

Poem

I stopped writing poetry years ago. Working full time took my mind away from poetry. It used to be something I lived and breathed. Now it creeps in late at night like an old dog that was abandoned long ago.


If I had a tree that grew in the forest that only I could see
a tree that gave fruit of gold and leaves of silver
a clever bird singing at the top its branches
that only I could see
with a red breast burning like a witch's red hair
holding a heart beating like a black drum
the roots of this tree drinking from a subterranean spring
flowing to my door and breaking through my ground
like truth overcoming lies
life overcoming death
then I would know what the Earth knows.
What the stars contain.
Then there would be no secrets.
There would be no doubt
that love is still in my lover's eyes
that my faith has not blinded me
that magic is not the trick of the hand over the eye
and my prayers will find God listening.

Patricia Obletz

Artist Patricia Obletz uses bold color and expressive lines to present the full spectrum of human life; from everyday moments of joy to everyday moments of human tragedy. There is a roughness and sadness in her work that may be due to her own experiences or an ability to express the pain of others. Although she is a trained artist as the result of a car accident she has the hand of the outsider artist in many of her paintings. She has had to relearn painting.

"Still thinking" begs the question thinking of what? Getting free? Seeing again? Although "Standing Nude" is clearly a rough outline it's expressiveness is complete in and of itself. Everything needed to be said is said in the raw strokes alone. The body bears the marks of time and deed. Obletz's display of emotion overrides technique. Her style isn't cool or even new. "Standing Nude" brings to mind the German Expressionists. I find a warmth in her use of color not found in many works I've come across on line.


"Woman with dog"


2009 "Standing Nude"


"Still Thinking" 2005




"Genocide" 1994