Joseph Kurek
American Artist
Manager of Studio 737 and supporter of Canadian Artists for the past 30 years.
Joe's introduction to the arts became early in his life in Buffalo, New York. His parents believed that besides
regular schooling, the seven children of the family should be introduced into the world of music. He started out
playing the clarinet but never cared for the piece meal restrictions of a musician performing classical music in
an orchestra. However, his rebellion of that clarinet, nurtured his desire to continue in the woodwind category on
the
saxophone. He threw away his music books and began playing by ear.
His ability to sing, was included in his performances in a Polish Band in Buffalo at 15 years of age. His voice
range carried from the upper to the lower octaves and he sang the songs of a number of popular musical artists
that
performed in the 50's and 60's.
At 17, Joe put his saxophone away to perform locally and joined the United States Navy. During his 20 year career,
he was invited on stage by musicians in various countries in which he travelled or was stationed, to sing a song,
or
two. Along the way he met his wife a Canadian Artist, Arja Palonen . His last duty station, prior to his
retirement
as a Disabled American Combat Veteran, found him in the beautiful Province of Newfoundland, Canada. Arja, would go
out and paint the entire area around Placentia and they would have to eventually open a portion of their home into
a
successful art gallery. Something unheard of in that part of Newfoundland.
After his retirement from the military, Arja and Joe packed up their bags and headed back toward Toronto. On the
way
they stopped and found a vacant retail building and residence combination on Highway #7, near Highway #37. It was
a
perfect place to sell Arja's work and reside, so they opened the "Studio 737 Art Gallery" named after the
location!
Before long, they had 15 other artists and eventually growing in number to over 50 and housing over 1,000 original
pieces of art, perhaps, the largest collection of "Original Canadian Art" for sale, anywhere in Canada. Because of
Joe's military work experience it helped him pull that Canadian Spirit out of their customers and it worked
selling
over 5,000 Original Canadian Paintings to over 3,000 customers. It was a 28-year success story, but had to
unfortunately end in October 2015 due to Joe's health.
Joe again took out his saxophone and started to perform in 2010, as a one man show in Ontario and Florida. All for
the funding in support of the local Kiwanis Clubs here as well in Florida under the stage name "Saxxy Joe's
American
Bandstand".
After successfully selling and being so closely associated with art for over 28 years he felt drawn to express
himself by picking up a brush as well and immersed himself into painting. Most artists start out with Realism and
some gradually move over to Impressionism and Abstract work. However, Joe got into Abstract art immediately. He
applied himself for some tutoring on the Internet and from the experience of some fantastic abstract artists. His
mentor was George Speck, the shapes and colors that George applied in his work moved Joe in that direction.
Although, Joe was inspired by Speck's work, he has developed his own style which is very recognizable in most of
his
work, a separation of colors by darker colors and borders, some of the most simplistic forms, yet interconnected
in
many instances. In some of his larger pieces, he hides various forms, he tries to extract a bit of wonderment in
the
viewer. Perhaps, they may ask: "What did he see in that piece that he painted, or even, why did he paint it?" That
is really the intent of abstract art, to make one wonder. In any event, that painting just may compliment your
home
or office.
You can find Joe's work in both The United States and Canada, under his stage name which he signs on the front of
each piece he completes, "SAXXY".