About

Joshua Huettig is a self-taught artist and has been painting since 2007. The sudden passing of his father, and the depression that followed, made him realize that he had to push out creative energy into the world, because the very nature of creation itself is making something that is meaningful and living.
Most of the wood that he paints on is pulled out of the Ohio River or is found in near-by creeks or garbage piles. Using mostly house paint he’s collected over the years, he paints images that search for the balance between the primitive and the refined – the spiritual and the crude – the animal and the elegant. His paintings are full of symbol and narrative. For example, when painting breasts, Joshua is not painting sexuality in any form, but is illustrating that to walk having your breast, the furthest physical point of sensitivity, exposed and full-faced into the world, takes a tremendous courage and confidence - to walk chest-forward and open is the purest form of honesty and thus, liberation.

 

Joshua finds self-taught art to be one the truest expressions of art: there is no middle man, no formal training - it's simply man and his creation. Joshua believes that the only way to live authentically is to live openly and expressively with ourselves and each other. Believing that our greatest task is to rise above ourselves and create a new horizon for our spirit, Joshua puts these beliefs into his paintings in hopes that they will spur a reevaluation of our relationship, not only to ourselves, but to everything. In time, these paintings, like all things, will decay and disappear - their energy and impact will only come from the way they inspire us to affect change in our lives at this moment. This moment is now. Hello, and welcome.