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Personal Info, Recent News and Events, Interviews and Features

Personal Info/Bio

I was born in Maine on June 21, 1964 and lived there until the age of ten, at which point my family moved to Mississippi.  I spent many of my young days in Maine collecting insects, exploring the woods, and drawing everything I could see, including many things that no one ever sees. When we moved to Mississippi my interest in art and nature continued.  After graduating from High School, I attended the Memphis College of Art for a while, but decided it wasn't for me.  I worked the night shift at a local grocery and did some free lance artwork on the side for the next few years.  Since March of 1988, I have worked at the Mississippi State Entomological Museum as a scientific illustrator/assistant curator.  I have been married to Julie since 1989 and we have an 12 year old son, Joseph (see my Family Photos and Family and Friends Pages for pictures).

My interest and emphasis in semi-strange pen and ink drawings has not dissipated since I began drawing as a young child.  I have always had the ability to see strange creatures and shapes in other things, much like finding shapes in clouds or bark.  However, I see things everywhere, and can even visualize three dimensional animated scenes in space.  This ability came in handy in high school study hall!  Although I enjoy painting and other types of media, I truly prefer pen and ink because of the fine detail, the close relationship of the mind to the drawing surface, the contrast that can be achieved, and the feeling of caressing the drawing surface with the pen.  My themes tend to be many-fold, as I do many types of artwork, but my true love revolves around the interrelationship of the environment and all forms of the animate and inanimate.  As I have studied nature over the course of my life, I have come to realize that every little thing we do affects something else, whether it be negative or positive.  I try to illustrate this idea in my drawings in a somewhat surrealistic and slightly dark manner.  I greatly enjoy playing with positive and negative space, the juxtaposition of seemingly unnatural elements, and filling an area with as much as possible.  The reason for filling the space is in part due to my childhood. When was a child, my family had little money, and I strove to get as much out of a piece of paper as possible.  Also, I am somewhat hyper and my chaotic assemblage of creatures reflects my chaotic mind that is always flowing in a million different directions.  My drawings give me respite from the everyday world and are done for the sake of art alone.  Although I am not totally adverse to the sale of my art, I have found it difficult to part with originals because they take so long to do and they contain a part of my soul. However, I am trying to rectify that and will be forcing myself to start selling more artwork. Since the summer of 2004, when I built an art studio, I have had a wonderful place to create my art (Pictures of Studio).

My wife's and son's photos and art on the web

My wife and my son have been taking some nice photographs, especially of flowers, with our new digital Canon Rebel EOS camera. We will be uploading some of these photos to this web site and they can be viewed at: Julie MacGown's Photos and Joseph MacGown's Photos.

News and Upcoming Events or Shows - also visit my Blog

***February 16, 2009*** I will have two landscapes in a group showing at the Greater Starkville Development Foundation at 200 Main Street, Starkville, MS. The show will run from 2 March to 1 May 2009. Drop by and check out the artwork if you get a chance. In other news, I was lucky enough to be one of the featured artists at an event at Mississippi State University called "Mississippi's Best Grassroots Concert." The event was from 6 to 9 PM on 10 February 2009 at Lee Hall on the MSU campus. Various artists in the region had several pieces of their artwork on display for that time period with the first hour devoted to viewing the art, and the remaining two hours filled with some of the best music from north MS. The music included a variety of genres having origins in our region including blues, bluegrass, jazz, gospel, and other styles.

***January 4, 2009*** The opening reception for my two-man show with Cetin Oguz at the Meridian Museum of Art was last night (January 3rd) from 6-8 PM. The weather was rainy, with some storms throughout the area, but we still had a pretty good turnout. I was especially happy to see the many people that drove all the way from Starkville! Everybody seemed to enjoy the show and we had some great questions. I even made some money from selling some artwork.

In Starkville, I have some prints for sale at the Creative Warehouse, located in the downtown area.

***November 29, 2008*** I will be having a two-man show with Cetin Oguz, an art professor at Delta State University, at the Meridian Museum of Art from January 3-31 2009 with an opening reception on January 3rd from 6-8 PM. I will have two gallery rooms to exhibit my surrealistic art. I plan on having between 60 and 70 framed drawings and mixed media images. My artwork should work well with that of Cetin's. His works are somewhat abstract mixed media representations of his beliefs, history, and ideas and perceptions of life.

***September 20, 2008*** There was a reception for my one man show from 1:30-3:00 PM on 17 September 2008 at the Art Department of East Mississippi Community College in Scooba, Mississippi. This show was a subset of my surrealistic artwork. The show was called "Subconscious Meanderings". The show appeared to be well recieved and I would estimate at least 150 people were in attendance. There were many questions about my art and I was glad to answer any and all questions. For more info about show- Joe's show at EMCC.

In other news, I am now the assistant high school cross country coach at Starkville Academy. Our first meet was on 20 September 2008 at the Mississippi State Cross Country course. For more information about our team follow this link: Starkville Academy Cross Country Running.

***July 13, 2008*** I will be having a one man show in the relatively new Eupora Fine Arts Center this coming spring (2009). I am hoping to have at least 40 of my semi strange, very detailed, pen and ink, surreal works framed for this show. Dates are still tentative, but it should be in late March through mid April. I will post details concerning the exact dates and the opening date when I have that information. This gallery is an old downtown building, which is basically an elongate, rustic structure with brick and old wood. It is not a lot to look at, but it has two really long walls perfect for hanging lots of art! Hopefully, I can have a good turnout to the opening. I am getting great support for this show from Mark Wood, the owner of the Chalet, a local frame/art supply store here in Starkville, MS. Mark has been of great help in the framing/matting process, and I highly recommend anyone needing high quality framing or printing from this area to vist the "Chalet". This show is going to be of incredible quality (at least the frames) due to my works being framed and matted there. Addtionally, I recently received an artist's minigrant from the Mississippi Arts Commission and the National Endowment of the Arts to help pay for various expenses for the show.

Last night I went to the closing reception for the People's choice Competition at the Meridian Museum of Art (here in Mississippi) where I had entered my drawing "Nine Panes of Thought." This contest is a bit unusual in that the viewers vote for their favorite works. This is a large show with entries from several southeastern states, all of which were of high quality. Needless to say, I was happy to learn that I won first place in the drawing/print category! The best of show went to a very nice oil paint portrait of an old man done by a local artist from Meridian. I was more than content considering I am not from Meridian and did not have any friends there who could vote for me. I also met some good contacts and it sounds like I may have lined up a couple of gallery showings for the future with at least two of them.

April 21. Well, I managed to land second place in the Cotton District Juried Art Show in Starkville, MS with "Nine Panes of Thought." As in the previous couple of years that I have entered this cometition, mine was the weirdest stuff in the show! I have had pretty good luck with this show, having won 3rd place two years ago, 1st last year, and now second. It has developed into a very competitive show with lots of entries from the region. Not only that, there are no categories; therefore, you are competing with sculpture, photography, paintings, etc. So, I was quite happy with second place! Some of my local supporters were less happy and actually complained that my stuff was clearly the best and that the reason I didn't get first was that I had won the year before. I appreciated their sentiment, but didn't agree as all of the art in the show was very good. In fact, I would hate to judge a show like this, and I realize that it must be exceedingly difficult to pick winners from such a diverse assortment of artists. The winning piece was a wonderfully rendered pastel drawing of a manufacturing plant done by Michael Maxwell, from Oxford, Mississippi. Third place went to some ceramic work done by Robert Long, a pottery/ceramic professor at Mississippi State University. And of course, there were honorable mentions and some merit prizes for several others....

Dec. 2007. I did a cockroach drawing in 2007 for the band WEEN, which they incorporated into their cd cover art, and will also be using on tshirts. The album is entitled "La Cucaracha". Go to their website for more information on the sale of the cd and tshirts at : http://www.chocodog.com/chocodog/ween/ween_new/index2.html View the drawing and the cd cover below.

My drawing of the cockroach, Parcoblatta pennsylvanica	The cover of the new WEEN album, with my roach drawing.

Interviews and Features

I had a drawing featured in a new magazine called "Vain" (2007). This magazine is dedicated to art and literature and even includes a cd. Go to their web site for more info (http://callmevain.com/).

In November of 2007 I was interviewed by the "Exquisite Corpse" club, a wonder surreal collaborative group hosted on the Deviant Art web site.

In December 2007, I was interviewed by the editor of the Midsouth Entomologist with the focus being my illustrative skills [pdf of interview].