Joe Wood - Artist/Author

The art of the American South and Midwest is the soul of American Art. From New Orleans up the Mississippi to St. Louis, the people and places of America's heartland have been captured by Missouri artist/author Joe Wood. He has traveled it's many roads, and have lived in it's darkest and most obscure regions. His writings have recently been praised for their compelling yet nostalgic nature. Wood has called his art a mixture of regionalism, futurism, and realism--all tossed together like the gumbo of rich and poor, black and white, good and bad that is truly American. His work has been sold around the world as high quality contemporary art. Now, his new works of non-fiction are available on Lulu.com. Wood's fascination with race, American history, social and cultural traditions vividly illustrates his writing with the native flavor of his region. "The regional communication of Art, Literature, Music, and Myth have a central place in my work," says Wood. "These messages that link old to young, age to age, and soul to soul are on one hand universal--yet, on the other--unique, and uniquely American. They are found in Robert Johnson's blues, in Thomas Hart Benton's paintings, and in William Faulkner's prose. Whatever that American-ness is--is very important for the Artist, the Writer, the Musician to record." Wood lives and works in St. Louis, Missouri.