Innis, W. Joe 1937-

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INNIS, W. Joe 1937-

PERSONAL:

Born 1937, in Chicago, IL. Education: San Diego State University, B. A., Insituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Rua Sampaio e Pina, 58-1 DTO, 1070-250 Lisbon, Portugal. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Eakin Press, P.O. Drawer 90159, Austin, TX 78709-0159. E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER:

Artist and sculptor. Exhibitions: Has had solo exhibitions of his work in numerous countries, including the United States; Canada; Tokyo, Japan; England; Portugal; Argentina; and Turkey; and at 1988 Olympic in Seoul.

WRITINGS:

In Pursuit of the Awa Maru (novel), Bantam Books (New York, NY), 1981.

How to Become a Famous Artist and Still Paint Pictures, Eakin Press (Austin, TX), 1994.

Also Rising (novel), Eakin Press (Austin, TX), 1998.

Also author of The Better Times, a novella, and of screenplays Modeling Lessons, A Kind of Eden, Ghost Painter, and Convergence. Formerly writer and editor for political publications in California. Contributor of advice column, "Speaking of Art," for Artist's magazine.

SIDELIGHTS:

W. Joe Innis is a neo-Impressionist painter whose works have gained him an international reputation for excellence. In addition to his work on canvas, Innis is also a sculptor and writer. He studied journalism at San Diego State University and later worked as political writer and editor in California; he has also lived and worked in France, Turkey, Mexico, South America, and many other locations. He told the story of his own rise to success in the art world in his book How to Become a Famous Artist and Still Paint Pictures, published in 1994. It is both humorous and practical, offering advice on the best types of materials to use, how to structure life so that painting can flourish, and how to get funding and sell paintings without losing artistic integrity.

Innis pays homage to Ernest Hemingway, author of the classic novel The Sun Also Rises, with his own Also Rising. Like Hemingway, Innis focuses on an expatriate's encounter with the world of bullfighting. Also Rising is set during the Vietnam era, and features a disillusioned artist named Isaac Sherderval, who escapes his life in the United States and takes a job teaching art in Mexico. There he meets Heinrich Guerber, an influential painter. Attracted to Guerber's fiancée and nettled by the more successful artist's arrogance, Sherderval is drawn into a plot that pits him not only against Guerber, but against a fighting bull. According to a reviewer for Mundo Taurino, Also Rising is "a high-stakes comic opera," in which "Isaac finds an Old World culture unwilling to admit that machismo, romance and art that you can look at are dead." Booklist reviewer Eric Robbins stated that Innis's book combines "some of the best aspects of contemporary American fiction in its exploration of what it means to find art in life, and life in art." Innis's writing power was also praised by a Publishers Weekly commentator, who noted: "His balanced yet stirring description of the bullfight becomes the subtext for his sensitive depiction of the life of a dedicated artist."