Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Power
Hi Joe, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Growing up in the deep south is boring so you find yourself looking for ways to entertain yourself. This ended up being art, writing, music and the study of science and history. I was lucky enough to have rudimentary art supplies, creeks to play in and a bunch of mixed up encyclopedia volumes to feed my boredom. As much as I hated not having cable TV and money for vacations and other affluent distractions at the time I am currently benefitting from the forced self-entertainment as I spent most of my time teaching myself guitar, playing drums on pots and pans, drawing on anything with anything that would make a mark, singing and making up songs, writing short fictional stories, reading history and science and most important of all, daydreaming. These became my skills as I aged and got more access to real musical equipment, better art supplies and libraries. Because of my boredom I now have years of experience making music and enjoy performing in many bands either singing, playing guitar, bass, drums and percussion as well as making art be it an oil or acrylic on canvas piece or a nature collage as well as helping others through my philanthropy feeding those in need through the Lasagna Love organization and my daily practice as a doctor.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s always a struggle when you find out that you’re a creative in the US, especially the south. We are told from a young age to learn how to be a good worker and to subvert creativity as you are labelled a dreamer and useless to a system built on blind faith. Struggles also arise when you are naturally empathetic and align more with the oppressed than the oppressors. I’ve always been more happy in the dark corners of metal and punk rock clubs than the country clubs, more interested in Jackson Pollock than Thomas Kinkaid, more Nirvana and less hair metal, more Mr. Rogers and less Gordon Gekko if you catch my drift. The challenges a creative empath is exposed to as they mature can also be used as motivation to change the status quo and use their talents and skills to bring light and joy into the world while also disrupting the oppressive norms. I think of James Baldwin often when he said “artists are here to disturb the peace” and while a non-creative may misunderstand that I have to clarify this means artists have a unique responsibility to shed light on uncomfortable realities, and if one feels discomfort it is my hope that the art will cause one who is enjoying the bliss of ignorance to reflect and wonder why it does so.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I feed my creative side in three ways. These are musical performance and composition, visual arts and culinary arts. Initially I was attracted to the visual arts being exposed to paints, clay and collage in my first grade art class. Then I was enrolled in music class and learned to play and build the dulcimer, how to write music and discovered I liked to sing. As I got older I leaned into the music and started a band and signed up for open mic nights when I was twelve years old. By the time I was fifteen my band was playing stage shows and opening for bigger bands and I got hooked. This addiction to live show performance coupled with a desire to compose original music and recording full albums has stayed with me since then and I find myself constantly searching for new opportunities to feed that. Visual art had always served as a form of personal therapy until I finally stopped worrying about outside opinions and began to do large pieces and give them to anyone who wanted them so I had a reason to start a new project. Now I find myself being contacted for commissions and have grown a small portfolio for folks to view on social media. I decided to go to culinary school after discovering I had a knack for the high pressure environment that is cooking while working kitchens for money as well as having the opportunity to study the culinary arts at a vocational school held off campus during high my school years.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I only read physical books I can hold in my hand as we currently live in a world full of manipulative and algorithmically guided content online. I use social media to promote my art but I view that as a necessary evil given the low cost of reaching current and potential art lovers. Books I am currently reading are James Baldwin “Collective Essays”, Marcus Aurelius “Meditations” Ovid “Metamorphoses” and Catherine Nixey “The Darkening Age”.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hurtandskip.com/epk
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joepower3000/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011670131720
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-power-55384172
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@studio317live
- Other: https://www.cashmachineband.com/
