About

Hi there. I’m Joel Barber. I live in Portland, Oregon. We make rad artwork here; I love my scene of artist friends and I love this city and what I do here. This blog makes sense to me because it’s a way for me to tie my interests together. I’m an artist and part of that is sharing my art with you; I’m looking for a way to reach out to a community that is larger than my pre-existing circle of Facebook users and artist homies. Talking about art and sharing ideas is important to me, so that’s what I will do here. By nature, I’m a seeker of information and I have a good memory, so I retain much about the things I’m interested in. I experiment often and ask lots of questions. Yes, I’m academically trained in fine art and graphic design and that taught me to how to talk about art and gave me a foundation; however, I’ve spent the last two dacades (nearly) seeking out the answers to the things they didn’t teach me. Years of art supply retail and having a few other friends that are geeky about technique and materials has fueled this as well. I really get off on the process, because having a huge arsenal of techniques gives me a good chance of executing almost any idea that I can come up with. I’ve joked about having a 900 number, because friends often call me when they are curious about materials. Really, like I’ve said, I love to share.

Here’s what you can expect here:

– Images of my artwork, and me talking about it (hopefully, in a somewhat interesting way)

-Shop Talk about process and Techniques (my own and probably some others willing to share)

-The Portland Scene (Shows I’m in, Shows I like, artwork that I like, what friends are up to)

-My Impressions of Portland (Photography, etc.)

-Music and other Media (I’m a musician too and know so many that this art form cannot be neglected)

Thank you for taking the time to give this your attention. I hope that I will add to my scene of peers, patrons, influences, collaborators, and muses. I love you already! Feel free to send me messages, leave comments, and share with others.

Cheers,

Joel

P.S. You may ask “What is ARTDAMAGED?”, and I’ll just say it’s not an easy answer, but I’ll explain some of the history and ideas along the way. This will be fun.