We were lucky to catch up with Joe Winkler recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Joe thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
For the sake of sanity I started painting during quarantine. When the world slowly opened up I spent my days at museums. I made my crude copy after copy of the masters. Unexpectedly, I noticed evident progress. Hundreds of images stumbled from me. What didn’t work I threw out, or reworked, and what worked I accepted with pride. All of which stood in contrast to my writing. I love writing. I’ve given it the past fifteen years, but every part of the process remains a struggle. I look for external approval, I take rejections personally, and with writing I let that slippery snake, “success” define my worth as a person of intelligence, as one deserving of love. It’s all so dreary. With my paintings, I feel proud of the mistakes and the wins, the process is all fun and play. I needed to account for the difference. I came to realize that spiritual success, in art, and probably all endeavors, requires a rare balance of awe and distance. Nothing is too precious that it can’t be thrown away and nothing is too bad that it can’t be shown and enjoyed. I realized that creativity, success and feelings about art are inevitably and powerful tied to any sense of self and therein lies the rub. We’re drawn to an an art, a career path, any practice because it means something, but the more it mean, the more precious we treat our work, the less you advance, the less you experiment, the the more don’t give a shit about trashing 1,000 drafts or canvases to get it right. But more optimistically, I realized that creating art is not the province of the few, just anyone foolish enough to keep going. And the most essential skill is not just persistence, but experimentation. Only the humble truly experiment because it means not taking yourself too seriously.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m a dad and husband and and a human (in that order) and use creativity as a pressure valve. Maybe that accounts for my prolificness. I like to believe that the artistic life is an extension of a critical worldview but these days I think artists are cowards who can’t communicate directly, so be careful. I think the business of art might be an oxymoron. To that end, If you see anything you like on my page, (link here) I’d love to print it out and just send it you. Pay what you will style.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
I think non-creatives tend to think the category of non-creative exists objectively. We are all of us creative. Art is not alien or divine or some holy gift bestowed upon some chosen few. It is utterly human and open to everyone. If you want to you can draw and write and paint and sculpt and sing and dance. Problem is it takes time and patience and the willingness to hate yourself and your work for long bouts of your life to practice creativity. Style requires giving up the fear of being weird and embracing the terror of criticism. The real battleground of creativity is with your self, not your technical abilities, and I think most of us lose most of the time, myself included.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Overall, art needs to be disconnected from profit. Art thrives when left to deal with its own internal motivations. Artists, like everyone else, should be guaranteed the basic rights of life outside of their output. Imagine if artists felt no worry about starvation or shelter, we’d have millions more artists in the world. Barring some revolution I think art needs to be and can be democratized. Our treasures, from the thousands of years ago to today are usually only available to the wealthy, only on view in marble fortresses. Art is only interesting when its a part of peoples lives, not when its lives in rarified halls. I sometimes wish artists would put clauses on the sale of the work, “can only be sold for 100 dollars, same for resale,” or, “can only be sold to someone who makes less than 40k,” because art tends to get stuck within the reach of the ridiculously rich when most artists want to speak to the powerless.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1ZVc_W3EtyfGSnSGAXurg5D7dlXNggnhl
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joewinkart/