Joe Diggs
MFA ’14 Fine Arts Low-Residency
My artistic base and inspiration is my backyard view of Micha’s Pond in Osterville, MA, where generations of my family have lived, loved, and worked. As a young man, I, like many of my friends, left Cape Cod to experience the world. I studied art and traveled extensively to then return home to my family and run our family businesses. I then painted my landscape through new eyes, moving from the representation of my youth into layered abstraction, to include all the layers of meaning that emerge in full voice. Even after all this time, there is always something new to explore, discover and paint. My life and my paintings embody the contradictory dialectic of my existence as a land-owning Black man in America. I have always been pushed to define my work in one way, but I cannot because I am many things at one time, all of which are layered into my paintings.
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Joseph Diggs was born to a military family in Croix Chapeau, France and grew up on Cape Cod, where he now lives and paints. Joe’s work is housed in many private collections on the Cape, nationally and internationally. He earned his BFA at Southeastern Massachusetts University then after years of travel and work experience, earned his MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He is currently represented by the Berta Walker Galleries of Provincetown, MA.
