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On August 28th in the artistically and culturally vibrant city of Philadelphia, artist Joka presents “Friends Stoning Friends”.
“Friends Stoning Friends” is Joka’s first gig as a curator and with it he’s brought together artists he’s shown with in the past, and artists that he’d always hoped to.
The event takes place at Jinxed, a tattoo-lowbrow-graffiti shop and gallery, at 620 South 4th Street and the list of artists contributing work is pretty impressive. Joka, who’s paintings will be on display that night, are constructed with tiny points made by tips of toothpicks. He began painting seriously after spending time at Jonathan Levine’s first gallery, Tin Man Alley.
GlubDub:
Tell me a little bit about your style. When I first communicated with you, you wrote me that you paint exclusively with toothpicks. Did I read that right?
JoKa:
Yep you read right. I paint all my stuff nowadays strictly with toothpicks. It stemmed from me not knowing how to do silk screening and wanting to attempt to reproduce that effect. So the first painting I did was a solid color background with black dots over it, and by using the toothpick they were all pretty consistent. That led me to wonder if I could do a whole painting that way.
GD:
How did you know this might work? Have you seen other artists taking a similar path?
Joka:
I’ve looked online and seen a couple artists that use toothpicks to manipulate paint, but nobody really doing exactly what I’m doing to the same extent.
GD:
You’ve obviously found this technique to your liking. Beyond the actually creating a unique piece of work, what’s been some other positives aspects of painting with toothpicks?
Joka:
The toothpick itself is a very precise instrument, so by using it, it causes for very close attention to detail. I like working very fine and precise. It also causes me to blend all paint off canvas. The more I talk with other artists I know, the varying ways in which we work always come up. Clean up/set up for me is so simple. When I do use a brush nowadays, mostly on frame stuff, I hate cleaning up. I guess you could say I’m a very lazy, but patient artist.
GD:
Where does the feel of your paintings come from? 
Joka:
Each piece of mine has a story or a meaning based on what I’m trying to project. I think people are defined as much by their negative attributes as their positive, and I try to exploit both in my work. Hence my logo of a fly, something I really don’t like. I started including a lot of meat in my work to counter the usually very vocal, anti-meat beliefs of some, and because its so damn tasty! I like mixing eras, using Victorian prints and pictures from the 60/70s, to give a slight sense of nostalgia and to show how dramatically ethics and ideas of living have changed. I try to keep a heavy dose of dark
humor in all my work, but also keep it thought provoking as well. I love art but get very resentful of art taken too seriously. I see the titles to a lot of my pieces as the punch line to the joke. I really appreciate work that is clever and very well done.
GD:
How do your paintings come to life? What process do you go through to realize an idea onto canvas?
Joka:
I’ll start a piece a couple of different ways. I’ll find pictures I want to use, come up with an idea or sometimes just a title and search for, or take pictures that work. Then sometimes I just want to make a cool looking painting, and the meaning comes later on down the line. When I first started, I think my work was a little simpler; mostly to cut down on the time the piece took, but as of late I’ve tried to start layering my work more, and make it even more intricate.
GD:
How have other artists inspired you?
Joka:
I’m constantly inspired by contemporary artists working today. Every time I go to a show or see new work from an artist I like (Eric White is one of my biggest influences) I can’t wait to work on something.
For more information on Joka, check out http://www.myspace.com/joka444
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