We were lucky to catch up with Joe Banish recently and have shared our conversation below.

Joe, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I knew from an early age — kindergarten actually — that I would always pursue a creative path. In the 1950s, my first name was a common one, consequently there were three other Joes in my kindergarten class. One day the teacher, who had previously collected crayon drawings from us, returned them to each student. When she dropped off what she thought was my drawing, I noticed it was not mine, but belonged to one of the other Joes. I raised a fuss until my own drawing was returned to me. I guess that was the beginning of my artistic identity. From then on, there was never a question that I would be an artist, one way or another.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

My parents were supportive of my artistic interests from the beginning, but being children of the Great Depression themselves and as a blue-collar family living in the Midwest, the overriding mantra repeated over and over again was always, “that’s nice, but what are you going to do to make a living?” By the time I reached high school, my father was already trying to get me apprenticeships with semi-related creative businesses such as a friend of his who was sign painter. That never came to fruition (thankfully), but did have enough of an impact on me that I took on a double-major in college of painting and advertising design. I attended Wayne State University in Detroit. Just two months before graduating, I sold my first two paintings in a gallery, which led me to believe my art career would be forthcoming. It would be nearly a decade before I had another sale.
Once I graduated, I went to work at a type house at a time when such places were being eliminated by advancing technology. The firm quickly morphed into a retail ad agency. I spent several years designing and producing everything from menus to book jackets, annual reports to insurance pamphlets, before the firm changed again to specialize in grocery store flyers. At the same time I also made use of my degree to freelance as a graphic artist, designing play posters, drawing for dairy companies, photographing objects for record covers, producing newspaper ads, and even creating material used as prop aids for witnesses of traffic accidents in court trials. Still, I was painting and exhibiting where I could.
Living in the Midwest, exhibition opportunities were limited, so in the late 1970s and early ’80s I embarked on a series of self-produced performance art pieces. Very quickly I decided to create a cycle of performance disciplines that ultimately included writing and acting in my own pieces, and advancing into composing music and dance, and choreographing myself and others. Of course, I had no training in any of those disciplines, but my thinking was if Michelangelo could be a painter, sculptor and architect, and Leonardo could be a painter and an inventor, surely I could try other artistic endeavors as I chose. It was a great decade of exploration.
By the early 1980s, I had advanced as far as I thought I could in the Detroit area, where I was raised. I moved to New York in 1983, and found employment as a graphic artist. Over the past four decades, I have been exhibiting paintings and photographs in various places in the city, but for the past nine years, I have mostly been a member exhibitor at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC) in Red Hook. They are an artist-run nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation that took me in when I needed creative contact. The beauty of this artist community is first, it provides an unbelievable gallery to exhibit in — a warehouse space built in 1869 — and secondly, the networking ability is there to speak with fellow artists about everything from sourcing art materials to finding collaborators, to discussing art trends (such as, are NFTs really a thing and why should I even think about it?) … and more. Three years ago, I became a member of the Board of Directors at BWAC.
I have been selling paintings, drawings and photographs steadily since my arrival in New York, but certainly nowhere near enough to amount to a full-time income. It has been said there are fewer people earning a living as artists than there are in professional sports. I always thought I would work in graphic arts until I was “discovered” as an artist. As it turned out, I just retired from my graphic arts job after 39 years. Making art and working for a living always were a part of my existence. Now I am truly looking forward to having the luxury of spending more time in my creative pursuits. It ain’t over yet!

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

In ancient times, artists were an integral part of the community, and artists were recognized for their talents and abilities. They earned a living practicing their craft. Somewhere through the centuries, art of all types began to be relegated to an “other” column — that is, a luxury and not a necessity. That’s why when it comes time to cut programs in schools, the first to go are arts and music, not sports. In our “post-Covid” times, there are more indications coming from sociologists and psychologists that art of all types enriches lives and helps to provide context, meaning and purpose. Of course this is true for those who produce art, but it is also true for those willing to see what is being produced and why. For these reasons, we as a society need to place a higher value on art. Artists generally are practicing their craft in more than one area of interest, so more work needs to be done to harness the creative abilities of the artistic community for the benefit of all. At the same time, we need to find paths to provide artists a living wage and a place to work.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Having been a performance artist for nearly a decade, I never would have thought that my art experiences would help me in the business world. In the late 1980s and early ’90s, I wrote speeches and presentations for the chairman of the graphics firm where I was employed. One day, having traveled with the chairman to an industry convention, I delivered his presentation to him at the hotel. After a couple of dry runs, he said to me, “You know this part better than I do, why don’t you do it?” So it was that the next day, I stood on a stage in a convention hall before an audience of 1200 people, delivering a business presentation about how technology was changing graphic arts. I do not believe it would have been possible for me if I hadn’t acted, sang and danced my way across small venues, in more than a dozen productions, years before.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://joebanish.com
• Other: Since 2011, I have blogged about the Boomer Generation as Mister Boomer at misterboomer.com.

Image Credits
Photo of Joe Banish by Victoria Beerman. Painting photos are courtesy of the artist.