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Game of Checkers
Artist Joseph Holodook
Joseph Holodook, Contemporary American Native Artist
from Hudson, New York.
Just a Friendly Game of Checkers
by artist Joseph Holodook.
- Joseph Holodook is considered to be one
of the finest painters of native America.
- As early as the age of two, sketching
his mother on the back of an envelope while
sitting at the kitchen table, Holodook
has loved to paint and draw and this inherent
love to create within his spirit was encouraged
greatly when his priest gave the 9 year
old boy his first set of oil paints.
- It was soon discovered as his abilities
developed that the young Holodook
had a natural artistic talent, which was
encouraged by his teachers, who in high
school gave Joseph the opportunity to blossom
as an artist by allowing him three full
periods a day to create without any interruptions.
- Joseph Holodook's art became an obsession
so much so that after high school, he worked
hard to put himself through evening college
art courses and it was here that a professor
of art, Lawrence Montalbo, introduced Joseph
Holodook to the famous landscape
painter, John Hesse; through his critique,
Holodook was influenced in a profound and
lasting way.
- Game of checkers artist Joseph Holodook's
paintings often depicted a nostalgic sojourn
back in time to the small towns and villages
of yesteryear where life was peaceful,
friends could sip cider and sit by the
cracker barrel, or go sugaring and skating
in the winter and generally enjoy life
as it was meant to be enjoyed.
- Just A Friendly Game of Checkers
depicted just such a motif, a cheerful game of checkers played
in the general store between two friends, the store owner and
his checkers buddy.
- The typical checkers theme was portrayed as the friend
explained some move on the game board between them as his
facial expression and gesture realistically created the mood
over the checkerboard as the storekeeper intently listens to
the checker player’s word of wisdom or perhaps merely to
a story retold as the checkers game got under way.
- The artist Joseph Holodook's
earth tone palette and natural postures
of the figures in setting of the store
would readily evoke nostalgic emotions
and memories for many viewers and perhaps
create an interest in that time period.
- The game of checkers motif easily lent
itself as a good genre subject to use for
the development of nostalgic theme surrounding
days gone by when life was uncomplicated
and unhurried and when people could take
time to enjoy a simple game of checkers
in the middle of a work day.
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