My first job out of art school was at a toy company startup. This was every bit as crazed and frenetic as you would imagine.
They had a prototype shop ... to make proto-toys. This is where hot glue seeped into my veins.
It never seeped out.
Before that, before I knew I had a designer's eye, I buried the pains of puberty in airplane models. I built all those old bombers and fighters.
In school I couldn't bomb and I couldn't fight.
Build. I could build.
Hand skills.
I developed a surgeon's touch with plastic.
So take the toys, add a ton of booze, sprinkle with bachelor chow and cook THAT catastrophe for twenty years. Its funny looking back. I did get sober. If you're having trouble seek help.
I did.
It got to the point where I was afraid to walk out my front door. I would have to drink. If I drank I would have to black out. I stayed home. I shut in.
I painted ... at least that's what I call it.
Take the toys, add the hot glue and surgical plastic. I built a world I could bear to look at there in that little apartment. Art kept me safe. Painting saved my life.
This is where Joenonymous was born.
And then I began wearing the art. Buttons. Broaches. My gallery is my lapel.
Most of the art on this site is stuff I wear around.
I throw it down on some groovy background and just shoot it up with camera.
And then ... then I found plastic eyeballs.
Creeped into my head, and they're still in there.
I espouse a gripping visual ethic. You don't have to like it ... but you will see it. You will turn immediately and see it.
People ask questions.
If you buy this art expect questions.
––––––––––––––––––––––––
I got sober and it happened in Alcoholics Anonymous. Since I use their name, I never use my own.
Today, I am a qualified sponsor and a writer to boot. By definition, people with chronic addiction issues face a world of confusion as they try to do something about it.
For the past 15 years I have had to help answer those questions. If we don't do this someone will die.
Maybe someone you love.
Maybe you.
I have written out the typical spectrum of questions and the answers in a desperate effort to push back the shit fog of early recovery.
It is collected here:
Joenonymous.com
Toys. I make all my own toys.
The coolest toys on the playground.
- Joenonymous