Joseph Conrad-Ferm

Born in New Canaan, CT / Works in Hudson Valley, NY

BIO

Born 1975, and raised in New Canaan, CT., Ferm did not discover his need to paint until the winter of 2001. “In late December of that year, I felt compelled to paint. Having no formal art training, apart from elementary and secondary school classes, my first efforts were the foundation I have built my creative voice on.” With over 1,000 finished works, on paper, canvas, and wood, his paintings are in public and private collections worldwide. Ferm has some 80 solo and group shows to his credit, including a one man show @ the Coral Springs museum of art, in south FL.

“I don’t have a college art degree and I don’t have an art critics vocabulary. I paint when I’m feeling good and I paint when feeling otherwise. It used to pour out of me, as fast as I could move the brush, though I’ve since learned to restrain my efforts. My process of late has become quite intense, by design. My intention is to reveal a complex and timeless process that is easy to engage.” His work is used extensively by interior designers, has been seen in design publications in the U.S. and Europe, and can be found on several television shows. Recent design collaborations have seen his work transition onto cycling and other athletic apparel. He lives on Cape Cod, with artist Sarah Conrad-Ferm and their two boys. He remains dedicated to a career in nursing and continues to work in a critical care setting.

You'll love Joseph if: you take pride in the cluster of stickers covering your entire laptop.

Creating a picture has become an extremely physical thing, alloyed with emotion, it reaches a depth closer to me than my own breath. The pictures are built up and torn down several times over, through an emotive process of painting, scraping, throwing, tearing, pushing, pulling, washing, and molding. Each work evolving from the one prior. Each piece eclipsing the one before. I view painting as one of the highest forms of escapism. It’s easy to lose myself, in the creative process. Having said that, it’s in evaluating a finished painting that i’m found.

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