Boing by Joe Mayer
“Every time I pick up the brush it’s a brand new experience,” Joe Mayer was fond of saying. Joe had been painting and teaching art since 1959 up until his passing in 2020. “After thirty-five years devoted to watercolor landscapes I find my work keeps leaning more and more towards non-objective paintings in oils, acrylics and watercolor. My recent exhibit reflects my attempts to create a perfect balance between a minimal number of shapes. I call it aesthetic homeostasis.”
Joe Mayer was an award winning artist who was affiliated with the Baltimore Watercolor Society, past-president of the Washington Watercolor Club and Annapolis Watercolor Club, as well as founder of the Friday Morning Artists in Easton, Md. and Shepherdstown, WV. Born in Johnstown, PA, Joe joined the Marine Corps after high school and then the US Army, later attending college on the GI Bill. With a degree in advertising design, he began an art teaching career at Sherwood High School in Olney, MD in the early 1960s, and later moved to be an art professor at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, MD, where he served for over two decades, including many contributions as Chair of the Art Department. He retired from that position in 1989, embarking on a career as a private art teacher and a full-time painter. He led hundreds of watercolor workshops along the eastern seaboard, as well as Mexico and France. His work hung in numerous juried shows of the American Watercolor Society, as well as dozens of regional art galleries. He was a prolific abstract artist who concentrated on composition.
The Trippe Gallery is pleased to present a retrospective exhibition paying homage to Joe Mayer. “Joe has inspired, taught and mentored many artists worldwide, myself included”, reflects gallery owner Nanny Trippe. “ Joe was always willing to spend time reflectively on all manner of subjects and one always felt enriched after a conversation with him.” Please come by and enjoy the different evolutionary periods of Joe’s career as an artist. Opening reception on September 2 from 5-8 PM.
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