Western Star Painting

Joe Hodway is a London based fine artist who was born in Dubai to a British mercenary and a primary school teacher. He has lived and worked in the Middle East, Europe, and South East Asia, where he picked up many of the stylistic and spiritual influences seen in his painting, sculpture and photographic work. Challenging the dominant model of art making practice, where materials must be seen to be virgin and ‘premium’ in order to achieve optimal results, Hodway proves that alternative methodologies, with a gentler environmental footprint are viable without compromising outcome. His paintings frequently incorporate reclaimed, and reconstituted paints, often salvaged from illegal fly tips in the streets and parks around his studio in South East London. These eyesores of unwanted, and polluting materials, would normally be destined for landfill, but instead are transmuted through the alchemy of art into poignant and desirable pieces. A corresponding ‘tithe’ of each piece’s sale proceeds is donated to environmental charities, to help us establish more sustainable systems, and address the exploitation of our planet’s ecosystems and resources. About his inspiration he says: "The transformative interactions between time, energy, and matter are my focus. We, as well as the world we experience, are transient combinations of these three things. Everything is perpetually exchanging elements and influence. Nothing lasts forever. It is the eternal dance of death and rebirth, attraction and repulsion. I am in love with the beautiful and terrible constancy of change. The work is a method to represent, interrogate, and participate in the rules that govern it. It is my job as an artist to explore, and draw attention to change’s inherent beauty and absurdity, so we can better understand, and appreciate our purpose.” Many of his pieces are inspired by the rusting shipping containers he sees on the banks of the Thames near his studio. They have travelled the world, experienced sea, storms, and dockyard manhandling. Their once bold colours and emblems are faded, and their sides are now scarred and rusted. They are a fitting analogy for how even the most durable of entities must eventually succumb to time and circumstance. Just as Hodway’s materials have been given new purpose, all of the atoms that make up our own bodies will eventually be transformed into part of something else too. For example, billions of years ago, we were all parts of an exploding star.