The studio
Explore Joseph's Collections
Silver & Gold
Where ground aluminum meets 24k gold leaf, reflections ripple and shift like water as the viewer moves. Light dances across the surface, transforming the work into something almost three-dimensional. This series is my purest attempt at painting with light—bending it through metal to tell a story that changes as you move through the space.
4 works
Humpback Whales
Every winter the humpbacks return to Maui's channels. Grinding their forms into metal is my way of expressing the magic I witness year after year. As their songs echo through the water, I paint them with light—burnishing and grinding the metal to capture the movement and majesty of their song. No matter how many times I encounter them, I am still in awe. They bring me back to that first time I saw them rising from Hawaiian waters as a young man.
10 works
Underwater
Anyone fortunate enough to dive in Hawaiian waters in the early morning may have witnessed sunrays breaching the surface and illuminating the depths below. We have a saying here: going to the ocean is like going to school, or like going to church. This collection is inspired by the blissful mornings I've spent beneath the surface.
3 works
Green Sea Turtles
Diving with green sea turtles here in Hawaii is one of my favorite things to do. Getting to paint them and bring them into people's homes as artwork is an absolute honor. I try to capture their youthful, playful spirit—the side I've seen while diving. On land they are sleepy and awkward; in the water they are graceful and masters of their environment.
6 works
Trees
A tree is a record of every season it has weathered. As life has moved me around the globe, trees have always inspired me, wherever I have been. Grinding their magnificence and intelligence into metal—transferring their light into the viewer—has been a special treat as an artist.
5 works
Flowers
Nothing on this island is louder than a blossom in full sun. Candy paints and gold leaf are the only way I can answer that color. The inspiration to paint flowers originally came from my wife, a trained florist from Switzerland. Every flower I paint ends up appreciated in my clients' homes, but each one is in honor of her.
8 works
Waves
A wave is only itself for a second. Metal lets me stop that second without draining the motion from it—grinding the surface dynamically so it shifts and moves as the viewer passes. My inspiration is a humble attempt to capture something that can only be felt, only be experienced: the force that lasts for an instant before the wave crashes and becomes water once again. Even if I tried, I could never paint the same wave twice.
6 works
Landscapes
To capture a landscape is to capture not only the horizon, background, and foreground, but to look deep into the moments that touch us—the time of day, the heat, the breeze, the quiet. These are what I think about when I bend light through my grinding. How do I step into this landscape?
7 works
Goddess
Pele and Namaka—fire and sea, sisters in opposition. Their story is written into the shorelines of these islands. It took me more than a year after the devastating fires in Lahaina to go through with making Pele. We had seen such destruction and loss, and yet we also witnessed amazing generosity and friendship. To paint the fire, I chose to also paint the water. The story of Pele and her sister Namaka is one of rivalry and conflict, but through those tribulations we have these prosperous, beautiful islands.
2 works
Inspirations
Inspirations are the pieces I simply must find time to paint. Sometimes it is an inspiring commission I take on; other times it is something that doesn't quite fit my other series. But nonetheless, if I didn't paint it, I wouldn't be whole.
3 works
Bas-Relief
Before the light came the depth. Raised and carved by hand, these reliefs let the reef step out of the surface. Through a variety of metal-forming techniques, grinding, and burnishing, these sculptural pieces may hang on the wall like paintings, but they are so much more. I get to express my subject's form within the metal, then transfer light through the grinds and burnishings. They are full of color, movement, and depth.
6 works
Abstract
Sometimes the grinder leads. No subject, no horizon—just the raw conversation between the tool and the aluminum.
2 works
Highlight Videos
Watch selected moments from the studio and see how light, movement, and reflection bring the metal to life.
1 video