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114 maconmagazine.com | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2024 J o e A d a m s PHOTOS BY JESSICA WHITLEY INTERVIEWED BY MM STAFF A lifetime," Joe Adams responded. The question was: "How long does it take you to create a painting?" He was born an artist – building and making since he was small. A Macon, Georgia, native and Mercer University graduate with a double major in art and biology, Adams taught at The Youth Development Center in Macon and then at Robins Elementary on Robins Air Force Base. After eight years as an art teacher, he put down his paintbrush to build a career in real estate and raise a family. Yet his love for art remained constant. Evelyn, his wife and most ardent agent, urged him back to the easel about 20 years ago. Continuing his passion, he now paints from his studio in historic Downtown Macon. He credits much of his artistic influence to his time away from the canvas—whether traveling or advocating for historic preservation—and to his professor and mentor, Sam Hutto. An abstract painter at heart, his recent work is most characteristic of action painting —never shying from bright color, unexpected textures, or layers, in the tradition of gestural abstraction luminaries such as de Kooning or Pollock. Adams is a process-oriented painter, not concerned with recreating the world, but instead with the qualities of the paint and the manner of its application. Driven by the action of the body, colors diverge, paint splashes, and layers build. Such are the definitive qualities of a Joe Adams painting. An architecture and history enthusiast, he and his wife have restored several historic homes, thoughtfully decorating them with modern and traditional art. His paintings, unabashed in their modernity, nevertheless feel perfectly at home alongside antique furniture and complement a diverse range of interior aesthetics. Adams has exhibited work throughout the Southeast, including shows at Mercer University, The Summit One Gallery in Highlands, North Carolina; dk2 gallery in Homewood, Alabama; The Gallery at Macon Arts Alliance and Art On the Avenue in Macon, The Left Bank Gallery and The Parker Gallery on St. Simons Island, and dk gallery in Marietta, Georgia. The painter is currently represented by CK Swan in Highlands and The Watershed in Cashiers, North Carolina; Riverbrook in Homewood, Alabama; Swoox and Matthews Furniture in Atlanta, The Purple Door in Gainesville; and Previews Interiors and the Gallery of Macon Arts Alliance in Macon, Georgia. He has been featured as an Emerging Artist at Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon, and his diverse appeal lends his work to show houses in the Southeast and private and corporate collections across the United States and abroad. "I love hearing some one s ay, 'I have a Jo e Adams,' or even b etter, 'I want a Jo e Adams'." A r t i s t s p o t l i g h t MEET HIM IN THE MAG BEFORE HEADING TO HIS NEW SHOW, OPENING MARCH 1.