Joe Hedges (born September 6, 1980) is an American intermedia visual artist,

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

singer, songwriter and musician who lives and works in Pullman, Washington. His primary media are oil painting and new media, using a wide variety of materials including flatscreen televisions and vintage electronics. In addition to his visual art career, Hedges is known as the lead vocalist and main songwriter for the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

music group July for Kings. July For Kings had moderate success, especially in the Cincinnati area, in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Hedges is also known for his solo songwriting career and more recently for his work with an arts nonprofit he founded with his partne
Jiemei LinPullman Arts Foundation

Early life and education

Joseph Hedges was raised in the small town of

Trenton, Ohio Trenton is a city in northeastern Butler County, Ohio, United States, west of Middletown. Originally in Madison Township, it later annexed land in Wayne Township. The population was 11,869 at the 2010 census. Geography Trenton is located at ...

and as a kid was always drawing and being creativ

Hedges spent his high school years attending Bishop Fenwick High School in Middletown

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. Hedges mother was a speech pathologist and his father was an attorney who died of cancer when Hedges was young. In high school Hedges began performing music with friends and formed an Alternative Rock Post-Grunge band July For Kings. Hedges began his art studies at a local community college Miami University Middletown but dropped out when his band signed a recording contract with MCA Records. July For Kings went on to have moderate success with their first album SWIM, especially in the Cincinnati Ohio area. They toured with acts such as Collective Soul and

MUSE In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

. Due to music industry woes and challenges retaining band members Hedges gradually shifted his focus from music to visual art, returning to school to study

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

Northern Kentucky University Northern Kentucky University is a public university in Highland Heights, Kentucky. It is primarily an undergraduate institution with over 14,000 students; over 12,000 are undergraduate students and nearly 2,000 are graduate students. Northern K ...

where he graduated with a BFA. He then studied painting and electronic media at The University of Cincinnati DAAP, graduating with an MFA in 201

Art

Although Hedges’ primary focus is oil painting and new media combinations he has produced works in many media including photography, video and public murals. His works combine an interest in art history with contemporary materials and approaches. Since 2015 Hedges has drawn from the history of both new media art and representational oil painting to create works he calls “ Hypercombines” a reference to

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

’s idea of the painting combine. Hedges' pieces usually feature painted canvases or panels in art historical styles that evoke the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( nl, Gouden Eeuw ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the era from 1588 (the birth of the Dutch Republic) to 1672 (the Rampjaar, "Disaster Year"), in which Dutch trade, science, and Dutch art, ...

. Alongside, in front of or within the painted areas screens or other contemporary or vintage media objects such as screens, cassette players, speakers are incorporated. These works explore ideas about contemporary media including the negative effects of social media, the

attention economy Attention economics is an approach to the management of information that treats human attention as a scarce commodity and applies economic theory to solve various information management problems. According to Matthew Crawford, "Attention is a r ...

and technology in general. For Hedges, pairing painting with televisions, vintage electronics, and other screens serves as a way to reflect on the lens of technology. Hedges' visual art is influenced by the early internet,

and René Magritte. Hedges has participated in many exhibitions including solo exhibitions at Bolivar Gallery at the University of Kentucky, Chase Gallery in Spokane, WA and Artworks in Loveland, CO. He currently lives in Pullman, WA where he is an Associate Professor of Painting/Intermedia at

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...

and the founder o
Pullman Arts Foundation
a nonprofit focused on public art.

Music

In addition to his visual art career, Hedges is known as the lead vocalist and main songwriter for the

music group July for Kings. July For Kings had moderate success especially in the Cincinnati area in the late 1990's and early 2000's. As of 2016, he has released four studio albums with the band: '' Swim'' (2002), ''

Nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek language, Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", ...

'' (2004), ''

Monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochrom ...

'' (2009), and '' Middletown'' (2015). The band's output decreased when Hedges refocused his life on visual arts. Hedges is also known for his solo songwriting career. Straying from the

route that he had known so well with July for Kings, he incorporates a more

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

and

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, earl ...

sound to his solo music. He has released two studio albums:
Curvature
' (2007) and
Alchemy
' (2010). He has also released one compilation album: '' Lexington Demos'' (2008). These albums combine acoustic sounds with contemporary electronic sounds, foregrounding Hedges visual art that also contrasts seemingly disparate approaches and aesthetics. Cincinnati's flagship arts publication CityBeat called Hedges' songwriting "mature and accomplished and his soundscapes provocative and full of depth...Call it imaginative, soulful ElectroPop for grown-ups."

Music Discography

Solo

* ''

Curvature In mathematics, curvature is any of several strongly related concepts in geometry. Intuitively, the curvature is the amount by which a curve deviates from being a straight line, or a surface deviates from being a plane. For curves, the canonic ...

'' (Machines & Dreams/Blumpco, 2007) * '' Lexington Demos'' (Machines & Dreams, 2008) * ''

Alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

'' (Joe Hedges, 2010)

July for Kings

* '' Swim'' ( Geffen, 2002) * ''

'' (Machines & Dreams, 2004) * ''

'' (Machines & Dreams, 2009) * '' Middletown'' (Machines & Dreams, 2015)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hedges, Joe Musicians from Cincinnati 1980 births Living people People from Trenton, Ohio