JOSEPH LA MARQUE /A RECORD OF LIFE

JUNE 2 – JUNE 30, 2019

From the Artist

My interest in art began many years ago. My older brother James, who was a Negro League baseball player, would send me advertising posters of his upcoming games. The colorful designs propelled me into a lifetime of creating expressive art. Throughout my career I have collaborated with a variety of professional and amateur artists as part of three separate artist collectives, Creative Coalition, Creative Company and Zuka Arts Guild. Some of the commissions included the Annie Malone Children’s home parade floats, stage plays, wall murals and many individual projects.

For more than fifty years, without interruption, I have created art in many media. They include drawing, painting, mix media and sculpture. Sculpture holds a unique place, because of its three-dimensional form, physical contact, emotional and spiritual connections inside organic materials. The other media support sculpture by cross training and stimulating my imagination. Oscillation between three-dimensional form to two-dimensional form and back to sculpture rhythmically carries me from one decade into the next. As a seasoned artist, new challenges continue to excite me. This is most profound when I am sharing knowledge with other artists through community involvement.

“Leave a record of life as seen in a moment in time, is it a swing of a bat or a poster of that swing which holds a lasting memory?” J.LaMarque