ARTIST at the Gallery - Joe McCord

Joe W. McCord grew up in Abilene, TX. As a child, Joe (called ?Joey?) watched his older brother Mark McCord take the route of an artist. While brother Mark completed his Fine Arts degree at Abilene Christian University in the 70?s, younger Joey would often accompany Mark to his college art studio. While there, Joey would paint pictures and sculpt pottery. Later, the elder McCord taught his teenage brother how to frame art. In 1983, Joey made many of the frames for Mark?s watercolor and oil paintings. These works were presented in Mark?s art show ?Color and Song?, a musical art show of Mark?s paintings and songs at the Abilene Paramount Theater. Twenty years later, Mark again called upon his brother Joey. Mark had a new art gallery in Saugatuck, Michigan. The Hunter McCord Gallery was a family endeavor with the brother?s sister Dana McCord Webb and her daughter Carly Hunter. It was there that Joey began selling his own pieces to the public. By the end of 2003, he had sold several of his own works into private collections in the Chicago area. Although the gallery itself eventually closed, Joey had experienced the thrill of making and selling art. Through these latest years, Joey has honed in on his own life and style. "Life is a shared experience with others in the pursuit of God." He smiles as he makes special note of the life he shares with his wife Launa, and is grateful for his blessings; including three children, family and friends, and cats. As for his style, McCord describes it as, ? My grandmother "Momo" fused with Vincent van Gogh?. McCord favors expressionism , likes the disingenuous color schemes of fauvism, and loves being able to find, feel and recount every stroke in his application of paint. He paints what he calls an ?embossed acrylic?, a painting with exaggerated and raised textures, finished-off with a high gloss coating; perhaps simply an impasto-varnished look. McCord laughs, ?I?m already blind in one eye! It?s best I paint it on thick to touch; in case I lose the vision in my other eye.? He signs his art with either "Joey McCord" or the more ample "JMcCord" for flair.