We had the good fortune of connecting with JOSEPH ADOLPHE and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi JOSEPH, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
There is Art, Family and Friends. Mark Twain says, you may choose 2. I’ve found this to be very true. Even though I have friends from all spheres of my life, my primary focus is Art and Family. That’s just the way it is. You cannot have a strong equally balanced approach to all three.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Fortunately for me I never had to face any difficult decisions about what I wanted to do in life. I can do only one thing and that is paint. That is not to say that painting has been easy or produced one magical moment to the next–if fact it is just the opposite. I knew that painting pictures was for me from the simple fact that it is the only thing that I can do where I am continually failing, yet in that failure there is growth. The process of failing and then seeing the positive growth that comes directly from that failure has lead me to accept that in this life, if one can derive a positive impact from bad things happening and conversely accept good things from positive impacts, then there are no obstacles. Success to me is simple; it is achieved when the things you want to do and the things you have to do are the same thing.
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
That’s a complex question. I know the drive of the question is to get an incite into what I find fun outside of the intensity of my family and work life, but the truth is that the most enjoyable aspects of my life that I experience outside of family and painting come from my interests in reading, learning and growing–even movies, which I love, have to produce some sort of positive impact, otherwise I feel like I’ve wasted my time. We all have friends that we interact with on differing levels; some friends you can only talk about this, some friends you can go a bit deeper with, some friends, etc. etc. Of course I can hang out with pretty much anybody for brief periods of time, but one of the conundrums of being a painter is that on the one hand you have to be extremely comfortable being completely alone–an introvert. On the other hand in order to promote your work, sell paintings etc, you have to be a gregarious extrovert. Its a problem. Honestly, when my wife and I get any free time, we hang out with each other. I think that all of my closest friends understand this because they are like me on some deep level and they pretty much approach life the way I do. We love each other, but I strongly doubt we could be around each other for a week. –That’s a big stretch. Interestingly, I will say this about true friendships, if you don’t talk to a real friend for decades, when you do you find you pick up the conversation as if you had never been out of touch.–That’s the indication that you have a real friend.
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My wife Jill is entirely responsible for helping me balance art and family. When we first got married and found ourselves expecting our first daughter—all the bells and whistles went off signally that I had to get to work. We have never looked back, and I don’t miss the person I was before this time at all.
Website: www.josephadolphe.com
Instagram: @joseph.adolphe