Dark humor on canvas
Columbia-based artist Joel Sager explains the paradoxes found in his multi-layered painting.
Published Feb. 5, 2010
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Artist Joel Sager reclines in his studio on Orr Street. Sager's work is filled with complexities, always riding the line between humor and darkness.
Weary from a long night of taking care of his 2-year-old son, Columbia-based artist Joel Sager refueled with an espresso and cinnamon roll at Uprise Bakery on a brisk February morning.
"Having another kid is going to take a lot out of me," Sager joked.
A self-proclaimed mixed media artist, Sager's paintings utilize a grab bag of supplies to form an image that centers a simple object or portrait on a complex background.
"If I am painting a pair of pliers, I'm not necessarily painting a pair of pliers that I may find," Sager said. "I want to paint something that is the archetype of a pair of pliers, so when anyone looks at it they can say, 'Oh that's a pair of pliers.' I think there is something deep on a metaphoric level whenever it's the most simplistic idea of that object."
Although the end result might look simplistic, the process is far from it.
Sager starts each painting with a black painted surface, acrylic under-painting and what he calls "naïve" oil pencil drawing.
"Then, I'll use collage and various collage material including actual material like wallpaper, sometimes newspaper or grocery bags and adhere it to the painting surface," Sager said.
A graduate of William Jewell College in Kansas City, Sager said his mentor Mark English introduced him to the use of tar in his art.
"I do a tar wash on the top of that which is actually tar broken down with turpentine," Sager said. "It gives a sepia tone to the painting. Then I paint on top of that with oil paint."
Sager's work has been shown around the United States and was recently featured in Gallery MM in Yokohama, Japan. Sager laughed as he recounted the reaction of the Japanese art crowd.
"In Japan, I was told that the work translated really badly," Sager said. "I think that the work has sort of a dark mood, but apparently in Japan it was extremely dark. I kick myself because I didn't fly out to go to the show. I felt like I couldn't afford it at the time. That was before I had a kid so I didn't have any idea what really being broke meant."
The 29-year-old father and husband insisted he isn't as dark as his work leads people to believe.
"I feel like I am a pretty happy-go-lucky guy," Sager said. "I think the thing is there is a certain kind of apathy to my work. The portraits are kind of expressionless and the inanimate objects are these kind of misplaced items on these decorative backgrounds."
Sager said he finds inspiration from anything he finds funny or interesting.
"I am drawn toward the quirky and something kind of humorous but dark at the same time," Sager said.
Quirky indeed. Sager recently painted raw meat, which can be found at the Perlow-Stevens Gallery in Columbia, where he is also an associate curator. Sager's next exhibition can be seen Feb. 20 at The Virginia House in St. Louis.
Sager said as the economy wanes, so does the art community, but he never got into art for the money.
"Painting has given me the satisfaction of doing what I love to do and coming home at the end of the day and not feeling like I want to commit suicide," Sager said as he chuckled behind his Buddy Holly glasses.
Who ever said he was dark?