joe scott

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

A respected layout artist for the Michigan Bell Yellow Pages, until he retired in 1989, his logo designs became famous and easily recognizable. The Little Caesar pizza man being one everyone is most familiar with.

In his 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” with vivid colors and crisp geometric shapes. However each one is unique, expressing a concrete idea that could nonetheless mean different things to each viewer. “

A scholar and philosopher as well as a “Joe” of the people and practicing Zen Buddhist. Many of Scott’s artworks are installed in temples around the globe.

It wasn’t until the early seventies where he found his “voice” when music, literature, and master artists, in particular Picasso, combined with his adventurous lifestyle were the influencers for the spontaneous and imaginative moods represented in his work.

Scott’s intuitive imagination unfolds 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 to create colorful, three-dimensional, whimsical, humorous, and on occasion controversial images allowing 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.