EMSDALE – The name says it all – Joe’s Politicians.
And the portraits inside don’t hide the opinions of their creator, the multidisciplinary artist and 63.7 (he’s likely 63.8 by now) year-old Emsdale resident, Mendelson Joe.
The one-time pop star turned indie musician and artist offers his take on selected American and Canadian politicians in the book, released by ECW Press, earlier this spring.
“I’ve been painting politicians for 25 years,” Joe explained. “It just happens the book came out just now.”
His subject matter stretches back to 1990s politics.
Jean Chretien, Brian Mulroney, Preston Manning and Bill Clinton are well-recognizable, even if their faces are contorted into looking like a person’s rear end.
Borders don’t stop Joe. American vice-president Dick Cheney and secretary of state Condoleeza Rice are featured.
“I painted her in an unflattering way,” Joe said.
But the artist, who oft repeats his mantra of “Women are the only hope,” also captured some Ontario-based women politicians.
Ex-Toronto mayor Barbara Hall was one of them.
“She happens to be one of the few politicians in the book that I admire,” Joe said.
Carolyn Parrish, the Mississauga-based former MP and now city councilor, is another.
“I sort of liked her, but I lost my like for her when she opposed same-sex marriage,” Joe explained.
Parrish, Hall and deceased Armour reeve Richard Thomas were the only politicians featured in the book to sit for Joe’s portrait, he said.
Joe painted Thomas in 2001, before he became a reeve.
The above-mentioned three are painting in a straight, albeit Mendelson-Joe-style way, as opposed to his other subjects in the book.
Joe calls the book “pretty good-looking.
“It’s disgusting to look at,” he continued, “because the majority of them (politicians) are disgusting, but the quality is good and the paper is nice and thick.”
You can find Joe’s Politicians at selected Huntsville bookstores or online at ewcpress.com.
Editorial
