Buffalo Rising Online

Jul 11th 2007, 11:07am By Laura Sargent

Joel invited me into his home and his studio, a pop surrealism playground that was as anti-establishment as it could be. I found Simpson action figures, a painting of a killer mummy hanging above the fireplace and a skateboard.

Upstairs his studio is full of the trappings of street culture--punk zines, comix, tattoo sketches and paintings that are anything but mainstream. What a relief. Joel leaves me to my picture taking, which I admit does his work no real justice.

I realize at once that fine art rendering is not lost on lowbrow artists like Joel. His sketches are animated, yet developed and precise. They may appear simplistic once painted, but the groundwork requires a tedious and well thought out precision that accompanies proportion and appropriation. This is not to mention Joel's endlessly creative subject matter, such as his depiction of octopuses, meant to represent he and his wife having a petty argument. "I used to like to say that my art was inspired by the guilt of hedonism. But as I've gotten older, I've realized that the guilt far outweighs any attempt that I could make at hedonism, so most of my work now is trying to prolong adolescence. It does appease the inner teenage boy I have," Joel said.

Speaking of teenage boys, I imagine that his art is drooled upon by many of Buffalo's adolescents. The women in his pieces appear fairly scantily clad, but done tactfully to soften the impact. "Things that made me want to start drawing when I was young were comic books and cartoons. Like any evolving teenage boy, I was into girls, so women are a big inspiration. I used to worry about my work being misogynistic because I do draw a lot of large breasted ladies, but what validates it is that I usually draw women in a position of power...power over those around them in the images. Coop (artist Chris Coop), said art was a form of witchcraft and that you tend to summon things around you with the work that you do. So I attempted to summon a woman and then I met my wife. He might be on to something," Joel said.

His art not only summoned his wife but may have summoned his day job as well. Joel uses his talents in his home studio and at the tattoo parlor, Art & Body, where he just finished an apprenticeship. From the looks of him, he is not afraid to be either under the needle or directing it. "What is great about tattooing is that the imagery I've always used in my posters ends up being pretty similar to the imagery I'm commissioned to print onto people's skin. The transition is fluid. It's nice to have a primary day job where I get to draw and create art, but on a living canvas."

His love of art and tattoos began in the early 90's when Joel was in a local punk band. The band needed to self promote, and because Joel was the one who possessed the art gene, he was commissioned to create the band fliers. His work became popular with other bands through word of mouth and now, what he is most known for locally, is his graphically ferocious fliers that hang in venues such as Mohawk Place and the Buffalo Icon. "The links between music and art and tattoos are apparent and seem a logical progression. Like my work, hedonism and guilt and feminism are intertwined in the rock world. There is a mythos surrounding rock'n'roll...the rebellion of modern culture. Rock'n'roll melds well with pop art and lowbrow art, rash, loud colors or very graphic black and white. It's all very dynamic. There are not a lot of subtleties in rock and not in my work either.”

Do not doubt that Joel's art is legitimate. This type of stripped down, underground art is often excluded from the collectors' realm but is well worth a pretty penny. Who says that you need a traditional oil painting hanging on your mantel?

Joel Menter
432.4121
http://www.myspace.com/thunderbeard
http://www.myspace.com/thunderbeard