Art Crimes Interview with Joseph R. Wheeler, III by Susan Farrell (1997)

JOEISM is a term that describes my vibe, the creative spirit that drives me, my theories about life, and the art and people I love. JOEISM as a term originally came about in my senior year at B.E. Mays High School (National School of Excellence). I had discovered the work of Salvador Dali in a new light. I had already known about Dali but I had actually begun doing research on him and the Surrealist Party.

I went in pursuit of knowledge about all of the Isms that had caught my attention in the past. This led me to understanding a lot about how modern art is interpreted. I had always known that art was compared to that which had come before it. I did not know how ridiculous criticisms were in reference to new ideas upon their first manifestations. This was so even toward those who were later praised and given their places in history for the rest of us to have to memorize in Art History classes. I was truly getting an idea of how I might be seen later on.

I did not want anyone else evaluating my work and simply stating that I was just a surrealist or an impressionist and on and on. I wanted to define me for me.

Joe was short for Joseph. Joe has always been considered the term that most use as a tool in communication to speak about the "simple". I'm the furthest thing from "Your average Joe". As a matter of fact, I have a euphemism to break this Ism down. That is "NYAJ" I'm NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOE".

An Ism is defined in our friend Webster's stock to be - A distinctive doctrine, theory, system, or dogma. So basically, JOEISM changes and molds its self to my growth. It is my "divine order" of respecting and applying my influences to my work, it is my doctrine, my theories on art and life as I have lived it. Last, it could never be least, Joseph is a name of Kings from my roots in the East. I discovered that it means "He Shall Add To It". I apply this to my view of self. I am here to add to the legacy of the Wheeler family and to the legacy of my people as the wheel keeps on rolling. I am here to add to that which is truest, deepest, positively motivated, and spiritual in art.

To be an ARTIST - is to be a shell housing the power of spirits. We are the most powerful beings on Earth. Everyone has an artist in them, I feel. Some will never acknowledge what their art is. For those of us who were blessed to see it in us, we must nurture our talents. Those who dictate the world have always used, and will continue to use, art as a means of controlling minds. This is because art appeals to all of the senses. That which intrigues the senses relays beliefs and thought processes to the mind.

Art Crimes: How and when and where did you get into writing?

Joseph: I am the complete opposite of the average person in how graffiti became a part of me. Atlanta is a big city and it has always had the "I love..., trust in Jesus, Fuck this and that" graffiti, but real graffiti didn't come to anyone's attention until about 4 years ago. When I was growing up there were no throwups or burners on the streets like there were in New York and such. There were probably a handfull of graffiti artists doing anything resembling the artifacts of Hip Hop. So there were no role models if you will. My connection to writing back then would have been watching "Beat Street" and "Breaking" whenever I could rent them, or if they came on cable. My first acquaintance with someone that considered themselves a part of graffiti was a guy I met when I was a sophomore in high school. A fella that wrote D-nice. He showed me how to evaluate the composition of a wildstyle, and I guess I influenced him in realistic, figurative work. At the time I was heavy into fantasy art books and artists.

I never wrote Joeism publicly, at least not enough to get noticed. My lifestyle never catered to anything that would make it "real" for me to express myself in that fashion. I had a lot of support, I still do. I came up on paper and dry mediums. I later took on wet media. In Atlanta, we mostly drive because it's sprawled out. So I had no urges to tag up the MARTA (transit trains).

The entire concept of the so called "illegal" graffiti has always intrigued me, but not enough for me to try to play in a game where I don't have the cards or rules in my favor to win. Temptation has come to me, but it's not my arena. I have to fight this war from my perspective, as we all do, in striving to express the truth in our own unique ways. So to those that did it like that and do it like that, mo powa to ya!

Art Crimes: How long have you been painting canvases and portable pieces?

Joseph: I've been doing portable pieces all of my life. I came up on cheap sketch pads and typing paper, on Saturday morning art classes that taught me all of the accepted forms of visual art. Those classes also taught me to respect other forms of art whether I understood them at that young age or not. I developed my skills in the following order (blending them as time went on): crayons - ya'll know what it is, pencil, pen, markers, colored pencils, markers, watercolors, inks and dyes, oil and acrylic painting, and then somewhat recently - the aerosol can and airbrush.

I did a lot of poster-size masterpieces on illustration board. I had always looked at brush to canvas painting as the ultimate level of accomplishment. I thought it was hard. I tell a lot of younger people that I've had the pleasure of working with that no medium is impossible to adapt to if you have "EYE" and know the "LINE".

I started oils on Fredricks board and eventually did my first masterful oil - " The Warehouse". The Warehouse had come completely out of my mind. I sometimes wish I had used photos or models (I work better that way I feel). For the time when I did the piece, I feel that it was proper to have come from memory. It came from memories of many Saturday and Friday nights going a local club called "the Warehouse" with my friends. I can look back at it and see just how quickly I grew in love with oil. My primary inspiration for the piece was Ernie Barnes' (artist supreme!) popular piece from the 70s entitled "The Sugar Shack". Most people who admire this legendary artist's work only recognize his legacy from the intro / outro of the show "Good Times". "The Warehouse" was my 1990s representation of this classic.

Art Crimes: What are your influences? Are Degas and Renoir influences? Old Masters? Are you dreaming? Psychedelic and spiritual essence?

Joseph: Visible energy. African imagery, presentation, and color schemes (particular favorites), Artists from all eras I like.

I don't know about Degas and Renoir as major sources of influence. I can dig some works by each but my tastes are unpredictable and often more realistic. Though I feel vibes from all over the world. The old masters of Europe, the African originators of all expression and culture, the Russian Constructivists, sculptors, Oriental, the indigenous peoples of America, Mexico, everywhere!

Spiritual imagery is definitely a theme and backbone of my work. Spiritually, I get into a lot of my personal beliefs. I get into the spirits in me, the ancestors I never knew, the family that keeps the wheel turning.

Psychedelic essence is something I appreciate naturally also. Most of what is considered a part of this genre is fluorescent and reminiscent of drug-high aided works of hippies discovered in the 60s and 70s. People should also know that they found influence in the East and in Eskimo art for a lot of the letter styles. A lot of people who do work of this sort traditionally were into drugs. I don't use drugs and I don't drink. I have drunk but I'm not a drinker. I've never felt that I needed anything other than the deepest pools of my mind to express myself. There's nothing that wigs me out more. I could scare myself when I vibe, or I could find myself in my highest inner zones. I don't dog anyone out for doing drugs to enhance their creativity because I'm living 1 life- but, we just need alternatives out here. I myself don't see a need for liquor and dope but a lot of people live off the shit.

Some artists out there do it, I believe, because they think it will make them as great as some others that did it in the past. I feel that they should consider how much more productive and how much stress would have been avoided if they had not done drugs. I've met lots of artists on the psychedelic / surreal tip that smoke weed, and some I respect regardless. Some I suspected for worse and hoped they weren't doing some laced shit or something. I've found them to be intelligent and on and on but I still feel that they could be more if they got high off of self.

What's high off of self? 1st you must find yourself (that's like growing your own drug). Part of it to me is the way I feel when my illest ideas wake me up at 4:00 in the morning and make me get on the net, or write poetry, or write a story, or do a sketch in the dark so that I can keep my eyes closed and do a blind contour from my dreams. Weed or getting so drunk I couldn't even remember why I got up the next morning ain't cute to me - to each their own though because we all do whatever it takes to satisfy our greatest comforts. It's economic.

We all got our ways of getting there and to be truthful I'm really only speaking directly to the next Joseph R. Wheeler, III type of brother / sister, cause they're the only ones that are serious in the way I'm serious.

About influences from Africa - I am naturally in tune with the African color spectrum and aesthetic. I am a proud Black man, a representative of the continued span of an entirely neo yet deep-rooted seed of African culture here in AmeriKKKa. I am one with the indigenous blood of all human beings - the blood of Africa! I am also the mixing and exploitation of all Africa's children in my blood.

I in particular am driven to the works of the NDEBELE of South Africa (where there is a strong mural and adorning tradition amongst the women.), the Maasai, Somburu, Yoruba, Fulani, Nuba, and many other tribal groups of perished existence and present struggles. Not to mention the contemporary artists of the continent.

Some influences past and present, besides those previously mentioned: Michael Jones, Thomas Blackshear (illustrator / fine artist), Jean Leon Gerome, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Archibald Motley, H.R. Giger, Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, Bernie Wrightson, Todd Mcfarlane, Mike Zeck, Author Adams, Michael Whellan, Albert Watson (photo), James Van Der Zee (photo), Gordon Parks, Chi Modu 2 (photo), Ludwig Deutsch, John Riddle (ATL Artist Supreme), Radcliff Baily (ATL), William Canty (ATL), Manet, Gustave Klimt, all the Mexican Muralists (Siqueiros, Camerena, Orozco, Rivera, etc.), MODE 2, HAZE ( ATL), HEX (LA), DAIM, HESH, LEVR, D-NICE (ATL- Mays High), CERO, SEVR, SEVEN, THE J, TWISTER, EMIT, CHEECH, DZINE, KAWS, GREED, WAQS, and a million others I cannot manifest, recall, nor have I discovered them yet. believe me, that was only .0000001 percent capacity.

I'd also like to add that some of these artists may be the furthest thing from what I believe in, in their subject matters, yet I still look for what can be adapted. It's a state of callous evaluation of skills. I had to get over my disgust for incorrect representations of Biblical figures in most European masters' works. I walked out of classes at PRATT when teachers would make statements about Jesus being a Caucasoid. Not for despisal of White, but for despisal of no truth. As you grow though, you realize that you'll be dead for stressing some things and that you do more damage when you absorb the skills and ignore the BULLSHIT. These people were still masters because of what artistic spirits passed on to them, whether they saw that or not. Thus I can still learn from the talent, regardless of their flaws.

Art Crimes: What other forms of expression are you into? B-boy? DJ? Freestyling? Sculpture?

Joseph: Yes, I am a poet. I've been writing poetry since my first English assignments in middle school. I started realizing that I was an honorable writer in my senior year of high school. I write mostly about things I've been through. A lot of times I will present poems along with my pieces in a gallery showing. It has a nice blend that explains where I'm coming from. They tell the story of the piece. A lot of my work is personal, and I know that people won't be sensitive to the true purpose of certain works unless I lay down some form of guidance into my realms. The following is a poem that I wrote about Hip Hop and graffiti culture at the present day we live in.

"REAL" by Joseph R. Wheeler, III ca.1996

 
It seems like even those that "Keep it Real" have a problem
with the way others...
stay true
I won't - I need not "vandalize", as it gets called
At least not in the same way
For I have genuine fear of a record.
I represent me
For I am the shepherd
it chokes me
it says I agree
It leaves me lonely when it's out on a robbing spree
There's no changing you
or you changing me
there aren't even too many of me that are involved - 
contrary to popular suspicion 
I guess my greatest fear is that your style and unstoppable nature that EYE admire, 
will never appreciate my attire 
when I come dressed to impress ...with suits from a bigger closet. 
Cause you'd rather rag while others get the riches 
and don't go around calling their Queens - bitches.
Be a soldier in the art lines 
be a prophet
stay on a wall
stay on the land you claim
but negotiate power that puts you in ownership of where we write our names
cause we bigger than toilet stalls
and hidden walls.
But wait
that's you and this is me - and that's that feels 
and talks wisdom
but still gives credit to wider opened EYEs rotting in prisons.
It attempts to make no black or white
No good or bad
Just grey
Just watch what and how you say what you say .... TOY. 
Oh Boy. 
And another masterpiece is covered by a peon.      
So sad..........
So sad EYE am. 
Give it color - Give it freedom!!!!
The hell with where you at
Hell with the misuse and overuse of them damned gats
Half of ya'll ain't shot a thang
and if so, ain't got no aim. 
Cause you ain't a true ARTIST DIVINE!
NO BLOOD ON MY FINGERS- JUST PAINT!.....just paint.
The signs of the world are telling you to grow up
untuned senses make some spiders unable to make a Web 
to catch proper prey that would make them phat.
Talent like this should be equipped to tell its own "ART HISTORY"
Our story!
Theories about this realm that go way beyond the can. 
I ain't start with a can.... 
but if you did, more power to you. 
cause expression is versatility, availability, 
preference, and influence a lot of the time. 
Open your mind beyond only the first ways and slow behaves.
YOU OWE NO ONE BUT SELF!
See, Kings do destroy
EYE bore witness to the carnage
but we all are fighting on different front lines in the same war! 
Please don't hate me because the world told me I was more beautiful
cause as far as I'm concerned - we're both suitable
cause we all looked good, geared up in TRUE ART rags.  
I didn't come up under the hood
because my elders were cunning enough to pull it back and get some air.  
Love is fact .....that will be followed in faith 
until the Earth goes black ...lights off...and then...
No more thought
It won't matter what made it, or who showed it, or
what was bought.....
ONLY WHAT WAS TAUGHT!!!!!

Art Crimes: Shout out names in "The Cypher"

Joseph: BIG, Snoop Doggy Dog, Black Thought of the Roots, Shaheim, A-Plus, Saafir, JERU THE DAMAGER (A TRUE MC with his own mind!!!!!), RAGE, Redman, the Artifacts, OUTKAST (ATL what's up what's up!), Craig Mack, Method Man, NAS, Common Sense (now COMMON).

"The Cypher" is a pivotal piece in my career because I was deep into those covered at the time. I was trying to be a lot more accepting of the way most people expressed themselves on the mic. It was hard to be entranced by a tight beat and hear some things that were straight skill and others that I would never condone. I still appreciate a lot of the MCs in "The Cypher" and others I had to exit or edit from my diet because I could not surpass the fact that ignorance was out of control in a lot of the work. Since then I've swung my Jazz window wide open to hear emotions of tone, harmony, and beat without lyrics that persuade.

Jazz greats and contemporaries have the same ills of Hip hop but there's a big difference in words and sounds. I look for that tie to the Drum and the Soul of my people. Money has tried to kill my people. The New World Order warnings in Hip Hop often come from those who play all the part they can in selling their simple souls. Then there are those who come true and admit that life is not a video set or what everyone else said and said they would die to defend.

I would like to thank Mac McGee (ATL, hope I got the last name write homie) for his B-boy essence in the piece "B-boy Refuting Time and Space". This piece was mistitled in ACA's latest catalog and now I let the world know the real title because it's powerful. Ones who break can go against time and define their own space within a dance cypher. They are in another reality when they dance. Breaking and its many styles have overcome time and space for its recognition. In short definition - they refute Time and Space.

Art Crimes: What do I think about the grammar or dogma of spraycan art? I see you "color outside the lines" - you violate the "rules" in some ways. Is that a protest on your part - a distancing of some kind, or are you breaking out into a new direction?

Joseph: I am "new direction". I'm the NEW ART ORDER with the areas I cover in my world. I do this thing according to how I see it. Some folks in graffiti would say you don't do graffiti if you haven't ever done a train, a wall, spraycan only, chased by cops, been to jail, had beef and went to violence to settle it, seen people shot, shot at people, put the rest of your life on the line, write with marker only.....

What the ?
Art is free!!!!!!!

That other shit can fuck up your karma, add some ill character, or it can kill you! - How much conditioning is needed by an individual before they recognize what is them and what is not. I'm not nasty letters from kids in graf mags wasting paper, I'm the art that doesn't say any of that petty shit! I'm a MAN! Art is personal and outer. If I did a monumental gallery show with a design that is obviously from a graffiti origin and it is 3D, leaping, untouchable computer graffiti styles, a sculpture, a fucking movie, would I not have represented? Am I now commercial? Who give a UMMPH what an unTHOROUGH, wanna claim ARTIST, piece of shit thinks. They will never inspire or get their best ideas out because of LIMITS. FUCK THEM SIMPLE ASS LIMITS!!!! No one else who is looked at as a GENIUS has LIMITS. I don't care what level of thought they're on. They go all out, because when it comes to you in your mind it doesn't censor.

If you tell people that they are not real unless they go through what you go through then you don't know the meaning of life! I know I'm flipping but I just want those who know what I'm saying to keep doing what they're doing and not what some speck in the galaxy of untuned thought would have them pursue! If Outkast of Atlanta had decided that the section of Atlanta culture they came from has not been good enough for Hip Hop, because it was Southern rooted and not from mother New York, then where the hell would the evolution of the music be now! Mother Hip Hop gave birth to all types of talent and she did not care how fucked up your life had been, or where you were from, or if you wore certain gear, or if you were well off, or hairstyles, or, or, shit.... Ya'll know what it is! And you know who you are! Find Your SELF and BE RIGHT!

Art Crimes: What's the graffiti scene like in Atlanta?

Joseph: the graffiti scene in ATL? Is that where I'm from?!

I'm from me and those who are a part of me. I'm from southern, northern, western, and eastern roots. I so happened to have been born in Atlanta. I love the land and those on it that love me, as with anywhere!

The graffiti scene in ATL is small but talented. There are plenty of Black kids I know here who would love to do some public work on walls that are rubbish from old buildings and such. Still they know that the same cops that pass right by White kids painting in broad daylight downtown -- open spots that are considered legal -- would probably bust them or harass them for simple suspicion. This is why I tell people to think about who they are. Realize what is important to you. If you are down for that, then please do it with respect and don't take anyone with you that doesn't have the same deck of cards.

Realize what is REAL to YOU. Basically there's an old saying by my Old folks round here (that's right, some of us still listen!) - it goes, "DON'T FUCK AROUND WITH SHIT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT. THAT'S WHEN YOU LOOSE YOUR ASS!!!!!"

Art Crimes: I've heard old school b-boys and writers discuss the similarities of breaking and writing and scratch, and since you see yourself in the same genre (or is hip-hop too limiting for you?), I wonder how you think brush and canvas painting fits in. Is it important for all writers to explore these mediums?

Joseph: Hip Hop is not limiting to anyone as long as one has some understanding of which levels apply to their life and which do not. I myself refuse to have anyone tell me that I can't do a graffiti- styled piece with other mediums besides a can or marker. I took it upon myself to learn the use of a can for self. I wanted to be thorough in the way things were originally done in graffiti styles. I'm still adjusting somewhat but it wasn't hard. I was already more in tune with pens, markers, brush, and other non-air mediums. It should well understood that I am not a Graffiti artist. I am an Artist. I practice the "isms" of graffiti. I have no limits other than those I place on myself!

Any one who's afraid to paint with say oil and brush should deal with it when they're ready. I feel that if you draw, you should experiment with as many variations of drawing as possible. That is all the can, the brush, the pen are - variations on an essential understanding of drawing!

Art Crimes: How much do your pieces address specific audiences?

Joseph: My pieces are free for all to experience but I do tend to get the best feedback from those who have the same genre interest, spiritual beliefs, culture, race, upbringing, dreams, and so on, as I do.

Art Crimes: Should the audience always be considered in public art?

Joseph: I don't know if "public" is meant to address outdoors (murals) or indoors (galleries and such) - but I'll answer for both. Whether it's public or indoors I feel like the artist should first address his / her original intentions. We must satisfy ourselves first. I have a poetic prophecy that looks at my work as children. Children that are conceived and well developed (with no retardations) before they are born. Once they leave my soul they must be nurtured and sheltered by me to be equipped to go out into the world and preach my principles (represent my name). Since I know that I won't always be around to defend them, I have to make sure that they can speak for themselves. Thus, "my work speaks for itself."

If my work is that strong I don't have to worry about how it will be represented or seen, because those who I taught and those who know the history of where I come from will always destroy the myths and false interpretations of the outside world. Only those who are part of me in some way will ever begin to understand my art. Still, it can inspire all.