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Artist Joe Diggs

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Artist Joe Diggs

 

 

Introduction to Joe Diggs.   1:31 min.  Interview:  Raymond Elman.  Post-Production:  Lee Skye.  Music: Carmen Cicero,  Recorded via Zoom: 5/6/2025

 

Editor’s Note:  (Summer, 2025)  Joe Diggs currently has a solo exhibition at the Provincetown Art Association & Museum (7/18/25 — 9/7/25), and is exhibiting at the Berta Walker Gallery in Provincetown, MA (7/25/25 — 8/17/25)

 

JOSEPH (JOE) DIGGS is a practicing artist, curator, and educator with generational roots on Cape Cod. His paintings range from realist depictions of African-American history and personal family memories to gestural plein-air landscapes and geometric abstractions. They span in scale from large, wall-sized murals to small, intimate works on cardboard. Diggs’ expansive artistic vision is unified by dynamic textures, perspectives, colors, and forms. Although anchored in his local Cape Cod community, Diggs’ paintings are in many national and international private collections.

— Berta Walker Gallery

 

The videos below were recorded via Zoom, are organized by Success Factor, and run between 30 seconds and 6 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

 

 

EXPOSURE TO BROAD INFLUENCES:   0:48 sec.

Where did you grow up and what was your first awareness of art of any discipline?

 

EXPOSURE TO BROAD INFLUENCES:   0:27

Did your parents play musical instruments?

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:     1:17 min.

How did growing up in Europe impact you?

 

SERENDIPITY:    0:24sec.

Have you spent much time in Miami?

 

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS:     3:10 min.

What was your evolution into a painting career?

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:    2:04 min.

Tell us about your exhibition with the jazz drummer Teri Lyne Carrington.

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:    0:38 sec.

What are some of the other ways you incorporate jazz into your art?

 

COMMUNITY VALUES:    1:05 min.

For 42 years I maintained a home in the very progressive Outer Cape Cod art community, but I didn’t encounter many Black people. What were your experiences in Osterville?

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:    2:07 min.

Your work is very evocative and unique. How did your style evolve?

 

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS:    1:43 min.

How did you become aware of the Outer Cape Cod art community — Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet?

 

COMMUNITY VALUES:    6:19 min.

When did you start to connect with the Outer Cape artists?

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:    2:15 min.

Tell us about some of your most memorable exhibitions.

 

CREATIVE FLEXIBILITY:    1:37 min.

You create small intimate pieces and large scale pieces. How do you decide the scale of the work you want to create?

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:    1:53 min.

What is your flow between making abstract art and representational pieces?

 

COMMUNITY VALUES:    2:50 min.

Tell us about your work with incarcerated youth.

 

UNDERSTANDS THE AUDIENCE’S PERSPECTIVE:    2:05 min.

Do you observe people looking at your work in an exhibition?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    1:04 min.

One of the biggest problems facing older artists is the disposition of their work after they die.

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:    1:21 min.

What’s your favorite movie?