I haven’t done acid in a long time but in my life I’ve been probably done it about 287 times.
If you were born in the 80’s in that part of the States, where the Bible Belt is tighter, trying to loose some holes is inevitable. Especially if your father is a priest that plays the classical trumpet and you mother a teacher.
They think I am an alien.
Probably Joe Grillo has loosen the belt too much. There is not much to do, he hates sports, so only thing that remains is art, since he was a child. Second hand stores, flea markets, thrift stores, yard sales and church rummage sales are the first sources to get art. Joe is a magnet for all this huge amount of stuff, that is then transformed through the collage technique into artwork. Appropriation and transformation are part of American culture since the 80’s, from visual and performative arts to music.
But being someone who grew up in an age surrounded by logos everysecond everywhere you go, that does have an impact on you whetheror not you want it. But I am not branding myself. I paint a lot of things “ripititionally”. I like repeating. I like repetition.
So also in Joe Grillo works we find iconographic elements that reflect his background and the society he was grown in. A squad of American eagles, bats, junk food brands, robots, some reference to drugs and super-heroes of the 90’s. Still Joe Grillo is a contemporary superhero, gifted of a fair amount of mind freedom to stay alive and to drag you into his great dimension.
Michael Toomral
