Joe Scott (1927-2020)

Joseph “Joe” Scott was born in Pittsburgh on September 1, 1927 into a family that would grow to 6 boys and 6 girls!

A whirlwind of experiences would shape his amazing life – growing up with 11 siblings; ballet, the Pittsburgh Art Institute, an army tour in WW2 as a song and dance man in Japan; a stint as a Jesuit novitiate; time with the Ringling Brothers Circus and the Rodeo Ballet Company in Hollywood; a return to the military for a four year hitch during the Korean war in the Air Force. While Joe was at Wurtsmith AFB in 1952 he met Daisy at a USO dance and in 1953 they began a marriage that would last 67 years.

They spent a couple years in Florida as Joe finished his hitch then moved back to the Detroit area, eventually setting up their household in Taylor. Joe went to work as a layout artist for the Michigan Bell Yellow Pages, where he remained until he retired in 1989. Part of his work included designing logos, some of which became famous such as the Little Caesar “Pizza Pizza”man.

His true calling was creating highly original and provocative art. After work he would retreat to a small basement home studio. His style and technique evolved over the years to facilitate getting his endless stream of ideas into visual form. He produced several thousand works, each instantly recognizable as a “Joe Scott” withvivid colors and crisp geometric shapes. However each one is unique, expressing a concrete idea that could nonetheless mean different things to each viewer.

Joe was a scholar and philosopher and could talk to anyone about almost anything. He was a Zen Buddhist and was proud to have his art hanging in temples around the world. He also loved reading and great music, which he called the “true religion”. His unrelenting work ethic and great humility was an admirable model for living life.

Scott’s artistic style began to “blossom” in the early seventies. Music, literature, and the work of other artists, particularly Picasso, and many of his own life experiences help him to set the spontaneous and imaginative mood for which he is searching.

His paintings usually begin with a series of thumbnail sketches until he attains the concept he is striving for. Scott’s use of dramatic color and his intuitive imagination allow the creative process to unfold into art that is full of life. Working in a deliberate and systematic manner, his choice of medium is acrylic on Masonite. Tints and underpainting are used to enhance the piece while a variety of materials is used to build texture and to achieve the desired illusion he seeks to complete each work.

The artwork allows the viewer’s imagination to adventure in places that have likely not been explored before. Colorful, three-dimensional, whimsical, humorous, and on occasion controversial – each piece invites the viewer to enter a fantasy world.

Scott views his artwork as a “destiny over which he had not control”. He plans to continue producing his work until his eyesight failed, at which point he will pursue his other lover - poetry.

While his eyesight did progressively diminish from macular degeneration, he continued to paint until just weeks before his death on September 19, 2020 from complications due to congestive heart failure. Joe was truly one of a kind who will be greatly missed by his family, friends and acquaintances.