JOE DENARDO: Confusion is Not Easy

Joe DeNardo lives in Brooklyn and has a van for sale. Its a red 1989 Chevy van 10 with a V8, a short wheel base, 80,000 miles on the dash, newly rebuilt transmission and a moonroof. While there's some rust on the body, it runs great, passed New York State inspection and is thus available for test drives weeknights. Additionally, Joe makes films, collages, photographs and plays guitar in Growing.

What do you do? What are you doing the most lately?
I follow major league baseball, play music, watch movies, and drink.

How long have you done these things? How have the things changed?

A pretty long time. Each of the things have gotten better and better, but harder and harder.

Why do you do these things? What's it like when you are unable to do these things?

I get a nice FLOW when I'm doing these things. Sometimes I feel really good, and most times I don't worry as much. When I can't do these things I get anxious and angry.

You're from Chicago, where baseball lives in the Cubs & The White Sox. Could you tell us about what these teams mean to you?
Chicago is a Cubs town. Even the White Sox admit that. If the Cubs ever won the World Series again they'd paint the town cubbie blue. The White Sox are some bastard American League team that doesn't play true baseball that showed up 40 years later under the original moniker of the Cubs (the white stockings). How unoriginal.

Could you talk a little bit about what you do & why?

I like to take pictures and shoot motion picture film. I pretty much just really like what lenses do, and how you can combine what lenses make (pictures) in different ways, moving or still, and how all that can render dimension. I wish I could spend more time on it.

When was That Moment in your life that told you you would become what you are?

I don't think I've had That Moment yet, unless That Moment is just the series of daily moments that continually tell me what "I'm not".

How has your life changed to accommodate That Moment's effect on you?
I've become comfortable with being dissatisfied. But confusion is not easy.

How has your work affected your life in return?

Keeps me going.


How do you relate to David Lee Roth?
Don't know him.

Favorite book & movie?

I don't have an all time favorite book or movie, but I was impressed with THE MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE LA TOUR DU PIN, which I just read, and I recently rewatched PASSE MONTAGNE by JF Stevenin, and realized its really a favorite of mine. So many images!

What do you think of the future?
I like it because it hasn't happened yet, but don't think I'll like it much once it has.

All images by Joe DeNardo.
Top to bottom: CCHM 2009, Moving Picture Left, New View, Subtractive Notation
GROWING
Films by Joe

Stephanie Barber's Freshmen Pyramids

Today I made a presentation to Stephanie (top row, left) Barber's class of MICA freshmen. After showing some Lexie Mountain Boys video and discussing the Human Pyramids sculpture/ performance project, we formed some pyramids of our own. The students were really good sports; they took off their boots and after the briefest hesitation subjected themselves to all sorts of lumbar compromise, giggling fits and premature carpal tunnel syndrome. Mostly, though, I made sure to get them good & ready for any spring break photo ops. Remember to go quickly and keep your heads up, lil buddies!


This is the pyramid everybody was in, except for Stephanie.




Not bad-- we ended up with 6-5-4, sort of a human trapezoid. Stephanie took the pictures from a tabletop in the studio.

Below, another attempt at involving everyone in the class. Here, we were able to get everyone except one using the cheerleader thigh stand lift. Interestingly enough, one person in the class is a real-life actual former cheerleader and if they didn't volunteer their identity during the course of the presentation I'd never be able to guess which one had no qualms about the thigh stand.




We didn't have too much time to work on weird formations because I showed the Petals the Party Dress vid that N.O. Smith shot of Mt Boys at Current Canyon Festival. If we had more time, it might have been cool to try some yelling/pyramids, or some moving pyramids (groups of 3 moving around bumping into each other). Anyway, thanks dudes and hope to see you out there soon! Stay in touch if you want to, and great job today.