WORDS | home

Mirage Division:

The Mirage Division is a collection of works made to explore alternate realities. Piers and their reflections offered a glimpse into other worlds to explore. The first several works of the series were comprised of steel, cast bronze, and concrete. As the series developed, cast bronze was phased out in favor of larger suspended works.

Consolidation Attempt:

Works in this series were the first after graduating from Wayne State University in 2015. While paring back from using sculptural materials in three dimensional space, I became immersed in map making and sculptural planning that would tend to signify places I've been, time, and paths of local bodies of water. The series began to resolve itself when the plans took root in three dimensional space, as found objects were used to dictate an orbit and gravity of a given environment. This was an experience in finding what gave me satisfaction in making - organizing objects in space to activate it.

Dark Side of the Moon:

A psychedelic experience, Pink Floyd, the Flaming Lips, and additive manufacturing played major roles in the development in "The Dark Side of the Moon". These works began as a collection of symbols I've come to associate to different tracks on the album. Without a proper studio space, virtual space became a viable alternative. Prints were printed in steel through shapeways.com. Eventually, I'd build out a studio space and take advantage of the dropping price of consumer grade filament printing.

Artifacts:

At the tail end of my education at Wayne State University, I began creating objects that were a frequent response to, "what does it do?"

At one point, I created a work that used propane piped in through a pedestal to make a form of fire, in another, I created a language cast into bronze tablets that stood as an alter to the passage of time.

Principia Discordia:

In response to reading the religious text, "Principia Discordia", works entered production with a flagrant disregard for purpose. Works in this series resulted in internal conversations of belonging, order, purpose, geese, rocks, and entheogens. Symbolic meaning followed creation throughout the series, leading to potential contributions to the satire-laced reference text.

Then and Now:

Joe knew from a young age he'd be involved in the arts, engineering might have taken a front seat, but Joe never really took to mathematics much. At Anchor Bay High School, Joe dumped all of his electives into Computer Aided Drafting classes and Art classes.

Joe began his studies in Fine Art at Macomb Community College in 2007. He was hired as the department technician at MCC in 2011, and enrolled at Wayne State University in 2012. Joe graduated from Wayne State University with a Bachelors in Sculpture in 2015.

Joe's work had been featured in galleries around South East Michigan including the Anton Art Center, the Scarab Club, Detroit Artist Market, Whitdel Arts, 333 Midland, and a Solo Exhibition in 2024 at Macomb Community College.

From a material perspective, Joe favors metal and concrete, but his roster includes found object, wood, paint, plastic, and one one occasion- fire.

Shortly after graduating, Joe found work in a steel fabrication plant, becoming the shop foreman in 2018. In September of 2021, Joe was hired at the College for Creative Studies in the Craft and Material Studies program. Eventually, Craft and Material Studies had merged with Art Practice, creating the Studio Art & Craft program at the college. This brought Glass, Ceramics, Sculpture, Jewelry and Metalsmithing, Printmaking, Digital Fabrication, Fiber and Textiles, and Painting under a single department. Joe left the college in October of 2025 to follow his favorite migratory species, the Canada Goose, as the flock traveled south for the Winter.

Outside of work and his education, Joe frequently exhibits sculptural work and has started up businesses which strongly influenced his work. During the pandemic, Joe's brother Kyle- an avid cannabis enthusiast, needed help creating an enclosure and soldering electrical components to create an induction heater for a new consumption device called a Dynavap, a battery free vaporizer for cannabis. Due to supply chain issues, the induction heaters offered through Dynavap were out of stock in the states. Thrilled with the device's aesthetics, Joe and Kyle decided to produce hand made induction heaters through their new company, Koil Boi.

When the company began to take off, Joe realized the need to handoff the labor of creating enclosures, so the brothers invested into 3d printers, and Joe began to learn to design for printing, and maintain his new print farm. As the business grew, new technologies were explored, such as resin printing and laser cutting. As the cannabis industry found it's new favorite toy in Ball Vapes, Koil Boi adapted. Eventually, tariffs began to eat into profit margins and the brothers made the decision to shutter the business instead of raising prices. With the experiences of digital fabrication through Koil Boi, Joe's sculptural works were informed by new processes.

With access to digital fabrication technologies, Joe founded Modern Prop in 2025. This company acknowledged the lack of sculptural appeal in consumer stem-cut, water propagation stations and Joe got to designing. Joe's found his current work combines his love of houseplants and design.

Joe has always been inspired by process, often citing a favorite show television show which combined his love of puns with manufacturing techniques: "How It's Made"

Processes in digital fabrication are have been used by Joe rarely as a "straight from the machine" workflow. In works such as "Florahedron", CNC Plasma cutting was used for metal components that had undergone welding and polishing. Printed parts were used with hardware to assemble geometries, and laser cutting was used for wood and acrylic components. The concrete base was cast into an alginate mold from a pattern made by assembling printed components, cladding them with laser cut wood, then softening the edge transitions with sanded wood filler. Joe uses digital fabrication for it's precision, and ability to save time and effort on fabrication to be able to explore as many ideas as possible.