From
the beginning of his life, Joseph Craig English was destined
to become an artist. His mother ordained it, telling his father
before he was born, that if this baby was a boy he would be an
artist. As soon as he was able to hold a brush, he was encouraged
to paint. His early efforts were brightly colored and energetic,
not unlike his work today. He was introduced to silkscreen printmaking
by his 10th grade art teacher and fell in love with the intense
color and flat finish of the inks. By 1972 he had begun printing
in earnest. Working as a designer at an advertising agency in
Washington, DC, by day, and printing at night and through the
weekends he soon grew frustrated with the split careers. In 1974
he resigned from the agency and devoted all his time to painting
and making his silkscreen prints.
In 1975 the artist
and his wife purchased a home in the historic town of Washington
Grove, Maryland and began building a studio. By 1980, with his
works' popularity increasing, English was already breaking ground
for his new studio and doubling the size of the existing house. Believing that the best way to
present art to the public was in a theater that was relaxed and
comfortable, the artist took to the streets, showing his work
at art festivals throughout the country. Developing a huge customer
base, English was now being approached by art galleries who found
his upbeat, beautifully crafted prints to be an exceptional value
in the art market.
The artist has always loved his
time in the studio. The focus of his work continues to be the
things that we see everyday but so often take for granted. By
the early 1990's the roof came off the studio and a huge second
floor studio was built in an attempt to accommodate the new projects
being created. Now added to the heavy printmaking schedule were
a variety of new projects that included sculpture and painting.
Giant Food Corporation commissioned a group of freestanding figures
that were crafted of steel plate, painted in bright colors and
erected at one of the busiest intersections in Montgomery County,
Maryland. Soon to follow was a commission from Bethesda Community
Baseball. This ten foot high stainless steel sculpture of Walter
Johnson, the Washington Senators' baseball great now graces the
Povich Field Stadium in Bethesda.
Recently installed
is a stainless steel Mercedes Benz at the new showroom of Euro
Motors in Bethesda and a huge wall hung mural at the National
Education Association in Washington, DC.
Though the artist
has often wished he could be three people, he has resisted every
temptation to grow into a large impersonal business, choosing
instead to still answer the phones and personally communicate
with his customers and galleries. His work has been purchased
for hundreds of corporate collections, thousands of private collections
and many prestigious museums. He accepts several special commissions
annually for oil paintings, and serigraphs and is currently building,
along with other projects, a series of colorful mobiles. |