Joseph Radoccia After Madagascar: Interview

Joseph Radoccia says he is very moved that his work has triggered someone from so far away as Yemen to look at this artwork and ask questions.

He is aware of the fact that being in Madagascar as an American painter are complex to reconcile. Madagascar is a very poor country, and an American who can travel so far simply to paint represents – as he puts it - a disproportionate position of privilege. What it did was humble him and make him recede from commenting and presuming.

He thinks one needs to be still and look and truly measure the appropriateness of observations, the inherent blindness of cultural difference. He shies away from forming opinions on what to suspect. Things are always far more complex than they look at first glance.

At this point of his life, he feels that as an artist, someone born with a gift to create images, his role is to simply paint what he is feeling and experiencing. In doing so, he hopes his work will represent one of the many truths that coexist at any one point in time.

He feels each painting is a map of a moment, a life’s work becomes a map of a time period, a life. Such an honest map serves some sort of informative purpose in the timeline of history.

Joseph Radoccia welcome to the interview.

So what’s this year’s resolution?

Joseph Radoccia: I seldom make them. But this year I did make a commitment to myself to paint much much larger, with bigger brushes. So far, I am doing pretty well.

Your still life in Madagascar is made of bright earth colors and fruits from that island. What inspired you? What message are you trying to convey?

Joseph Radoccia: I attempted with my painting in Madagascar to capture the sense of peace and stillness I was able to experience during my stay. This was inspired by the brilliant sunlight, and rich colors of the market produce, and beauty of the printed lambas (the type of traditional Malagasy cloth I use in my still life paintings. It was not so much an active attempt to convey a message as simply a visual chronicle of my experience as a painter quietly set in a new environment.

Madagascar is a long way off from anywhere, why Madagascar?

Joseph Radoccia: Yes, Madagascar is a very long way from where I grew up, and far from anyplace I had previously visited.

For many years I had heard stories and descriptions of Madagascar from a close Malagasy friend in New York. But the stories were mostly anecdotes about family and growing up. I had no real physical picture of the place in my head. Then an opportunity to visit came up in 2001, at the time of the total solar eclipse. Traveling to Madagascar to see the eclipse sounded like a wonderful life adventure. So with a friend I traveled there for the first time, and instantly I was hooked. I knew I would be returning again and again. I knew I wanted to do some painting there.

How has the still life in Madagascar changed your life?

Joseph Radoccia: Still life painting in Madagascar has changed an important aspect of my life, the way I paint, my relationship with my craft. Prior to painting in Madagascar I almost exclusively painted the human figure, my paintings were focused on story telling and allegory. I worked more from reference material such as, photographs, art history books, and old etchings. My process was dependant on all sorts of tools and technology, the computer, copy machines, tracing paper. But when I traveled to Madagascar I brought only a small box of oil paints and my brushes, no other tools.

I began painting directly from life using what I found around me for reference. Meaning; I set up a still life from objects I gathered, and sat across from it and simply looked at it, and painted. It became as much a meditation on stillness as a painting practice. My relationship with the paint and brushes became more exclusive and intimate. When I returned home to my studio in New York, filled with tools and reference books, it all seemed excessive and unnecessary, even a hindrance. This has rolled over into much of my attitude about many of the things I am surrounded by.

What were the responses?

Joseph Radoccia: The response to the new work and new direction was good. While some people missed my use of the figure, others seemed excited to see me focus exclusively on objects, patterns, light and colors which had always played an important supporting role in my figurative paintings. Followers of my figurative painting often ask if and when I will reintroduce the figure into the work. Though I am not sure when, I do feel is inevitable.

What are your values?

Joseph Radoccia: Family, Friends, Sincerity, Humility, Empathy, Curiosity, and life as a good book.

How has success changed your life?

Joseph Radoccia: Success? That is a complex label, a word with such a subjective interpretation. I do feel successful in that I can define my day each morning, and choose what to create in my studio. It feels a success that my paintings afford me the opportunity to live comfortably, travel, eat well, and remain healthy.

I feel most successful in the fact that I am surrounded by loving friends and family who support my choices. Having a life with these blessings and opportunities has made me acutely aware of just how lucky I am. I believe that awareness has little by little changed the way I experience the world around me.

Who is Joseph Radoccia? How best would you describe yourself?

Joseph Radoccia: I would say I am a pretty private guy who enjoys his time alone painting and reading. But, also a man who likes to be among friends and family, enjoying lively conversation, open exchanges and a good laugh.

What is the setting like in which your work at present?

Joseph Radoccia: Currently I am working from my studio in Brooklyn New York. It is located in a row house on a once quiet residential street. Unfortunately the area in recent years has fallen prey to rabid urban development, and is being transformed and swallowed up by greed and unchecked gentrification.

While the studio itself remains a very pleasant working environment, the urgency of the surrounding environment has destroyed many of the qualities that drew me to the area. When in Brooklyn I feel I am painting in a small chamber surrounded by a roaring urban machine.

In 2003 you decided it was time to become quiet and reflect. Simply to look, see, feel in order to let a "new" angle to emerge. Is that commitment completed or still on? And the "new" angle?

Joseph Radoccia: I would say to some degree it is complete. Through this extended period of passive observation, painting from life, and focusing on the act of painting itself, rather than the intentional communication of a message, I discovered much about my process. I learned new things from the finished product itself. A new angle did emerge bit by bit.

The "new angle" is a continued exploration of painting from life, but with more conscious intent when selecting the object in the painting, and composing the still life. Selecting objects for their meaning and communication potential as well as their esthetic value.

Paintings after Madagascar, memories of the environment, what’s new in this respect?

Joseph Radoccia: The newness is in what I came to discover about each painting once I returned home. I found when viewing the completed Madagascar paintings that each was embedded with distinct memories. But not exactly what I had expected. It was not that a painting of a papaya, coconut, or mandarin brought back memories of the market, and bounty of the land.

Rather, the painting itself evoked vivid memories of the surroundings and circumstances in which it was painted. The sounds of birds, the exact weather of the day I painted, the music on the radio, or moments of conversation overheard as I worked, now emerge when I view each painting. Detailed moments that had slipped out of my conscious memory now surface when I stare at the painting. To me the still life paintings have become "memory maps".

This discovery set me wondering what might emerge if I selected and painted objects that were embedded with memories of their own, significant objects selected from my experiences that might evoke personal memories. I ask myself the question: if I stare at these objects and paint them will I find my mind wandering to lost subconscious memories triggered by these objects. The new paintings will explore both the memories in the objects, and the effects of reflecting on the past. It took the stillness of painting in Madagascar uninterrupted for me to discover this aspect of my work.

Yours is a long list of exhibitions, which of them is a milestone, or of particular importance to you?

Joseph Radoccia: Each is important to me, and an honor, but one exhibition very early in my painting career was of significant importance due to its timing and local prestige. Early on, right out of Graduate school, I was selected to be part of a regional exhibition at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo New York. It came at a cross road in my life, a time when I had many questions and doubts about the wisdom of choosing a life as an artist. Being part of that exhibition in a gallery I had grown up visiting and learning from, among a collection of important historic works of art gave me a sense of pride the fueled my commitment to devote my life to the making of art. A decision I have never regretted or doubted since.

What role does art plays in the public realm?

Joseph Radoccia: Art can play so many roles in the public realm: from the simplicity of decoration, to the weight and responsibility of witnessing and recording. Art can be inspiring, educating, or trigger the complexity of questioning or motivating social change.

How can art effect change? How can art bring about key aspects of change?

Joseph Radoccia: I believe that art can effect change through the intimate one on one communication it establishes with each viewer. I see art as an extension of the artist, as a precise form of self-expression. An artist that is true to their individuality cannot help but express and thus expose in the most intimate of languages, the expansion of their creativity into a tangible object.

This object then takes on a life of its own, interacting one at a time with each viewer that comes upon. It opens and keeps open a viewpoint ideally triggering dialogue upon dialogue with out judgment. The more poignant, relevant and stimulating the triggered dialogue, the more possible its ripple effect will effect change.

Can art change hearts?

Joseph Radoccia: That is possible. Art can open eyes, and eyes once opened may see things cast in a new light. This new light could change hearts.

Your happiest moments?

Joseph Radoccia: Laughing with my family around a table full of food. Walking with a friend in the pure silence across a valley of rice paddies in the highlands of Madagascar. Great music playing in my studio sitting across from a painting that is unfolding with ease.

When did your passion for artistic expression begun?

Joseph Radoccia: I do not remember a time that I was not passionate about making art. It has always been an integral part of me.

Was there anyone who really influenced you to become artist?

Joseph Radoccia: No, no one person. I have been very lucky in that my family and teachers have always supported and encouraged my desire and choice to make art.

What challenges and obstacles did you encounter?

Joseph Radoccia: The challenges and obstacles I have encountered have been minimal and inconsequential when compared to those by so many people seeking self- expression against far greater odds. Mine have been personal in nature, primarily challenges I posed to myself in an effort to push my limits and test my boundaries.

How much real life is there in your Madagascar still life and other paintings?

Joseph Radoccia: Painting from life, as I do with my still life paintings, represent the realness of how I am experiencing what I am looking at. The real life they represent, and can only represent, is my own subjective experience. In the case of the Malagasy still life paintings, that would be the experience of an American painter sitting quietly in a lush Antananarivo garden painting items that caught his eye. I believe to one degree or another this subjective measurement of a "real life" applies to all my paintings.

What was your biggest reward?

Joseph Radoccia: My biggest reward was a warm reception held for the opening of an exhibit of my paintings in my hometown. I had just returned from Madagascar in 2005 with my new Still Life paintings, a completely new direction in my work. Two dear friends had just opened a new space in Buffalo. They invited me to exhibit my new work. I thought this would be a good opportunity to share my painting with a few friends and family back home. It ended up being so much more than that. It turned out to be what felt like a reunion, a wedding, and an art opening all rolled into one. The turn out was far greater then expected? There was a delicious abundant spread of, wonderful live music and a room hung with my paintings, overflowing with laughter and love late into the evening. That my art could play a role in bringing this together, in my hometown, is the greatest reward I could ever receive for my work.

Joseph Radoccia it has been a pleasure talking to you.