My name is Joe Mitchell and I am an abstract expressionist painter. I am also an Art teacher to support students in finding their own voice. I have taught Visual Art 1 here at Germantown High School for 5 years. The opportunity to show people how a creative mind works is one of the most rewarding things about doing what I do.

In my own art, I work fast and my work is about a reaction to what I experience. The balance between what I see and create is the challenge that inspires me to continue discovering how to describe what I see. New images emerge with each stroke of the brush. While I have experimented with all types of media, I feel most connected to working with paint on wood. The challenge is balancing the unpredictable drops of paint and the contrast from my precise organized lines.

My color choices are bold and vivid and painting entices me to define space with shape. The mixture of geometrical shapes and organic relationships in composition fascinates me. I'm inspired and feel most influenced by the work of Keith Haring, Jean Michel Basquait, Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollack, and Pablo Picasso.