Though of My Peak, 2008, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches

Joseph Wardwell
Joe Wardwell’s paintings are a combination of imagery from rock and roll culture and classic landscapes of the American west as seen through the work of Albert Bierstadt.

In these interpreted landscapes, Wardwell adds phrases from the lyrics of rock songs implying a relationship to the landscape image. In some of the works the correlation between the two parts is overt and in others it’s varied or oblique. The paintings, generated from many of the loudest and heaviest of music, become strangely quiet and meditative. The font of the text itself is derived from rock concert silkscreen posters and is intended to contrast sharply from the landscape. Although, the color and layers of the text is derived from silkscreen prints, it is also heavily influenced by Op-Art and early American abstract painters such as Stuart Davis. Wardwell’s ultimate attempt is to picture an America that is not based in reality, a subtly altered or mirrored reality; one where the current end of empire meets manifest destiny and both languish in the hazy afterglow of seventies rock.

Wardwell received his BFA from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA and his MFA in painting from Boston University, Boston, MA. He is a professor of painting and drawing at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA.