October 6, 2023
I Paint the Moon ~ Joseph Coco 260 color pages of: 126 paintings, drawings and prints – 50th Anniversary of The Full Moon Series Available thru: LuLu.com Print-on-Demand
Joe Coco in Messina, Sicily 2009. Photo: Michele Lotta
HACKETTSTOWN, NJ, October 6, 2023—The 50th Anniversary of Joseph Coco’s FULL MOON SERIES is being celebrated with a 260-page, full-color coffee table art book. I Paint The Moon features 126 images, each with a detail, stunningly designed by Darlene Mea of Zenfull Living.com and published by Flying Game Press. The book is available for purchase through Print-On Demand: LuLu.com.
“The Full Moon Series is a milestone! A first of its kind: unprecedented and unequaled in the history of World Art. No other artist has sustained such a groundbreaking, imaginative endeavor, dedicating 50 years to this subject”. Art Historian Alexandra Olnuf, Ph.D.
Every December Coco paints the full moon as it rises, “an image depicting a synopsis of the year.” Since 2000, the artist has included January full moon images that “anticipate what the year will look like.” Coco’s themes reflect interests in astronomy, current events, ritual, and synesthesia. Coco’s fascination for archetypal subjects has led him to create images from the places he has lived: Passaic, NJ; Flagstaff, AZ; San Francisco, Boston, Manhattan, Lisbon, Rome, and Messina-Sicily, etc. Started in Flagstaff, AZ in 1972, the series continues through the present, in Frenchtown, NJ.
Music accompanies the series, composed and recorded by Coco, available thru Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, etc. The double album is entitled I Paint The Moon: CD1-Silver Lamp – 13-instrumentals; and CD-2 I Paint the Moon 19-lyric tunes with moon themes culled from Coco’s 58 albums.
“A storm of light….” writes Paul McGuirk Artist/Photographer.
“Emanation from the heaven’s; saturated color from a divine imagination,” writes Don Kommit, Last of the Beat Poets.
Centenary University’s Taylor Memorial Library Gallery of Hackettstown, NJ, exhibited the entire series from May 2022 through January 2023. Warren County & Hunterdon County Library’s presents Coco in 4-Lectures: Modern Arts Legacy Today, May and June.
Coco earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Northern Arizona University with a Master Of Fine Arts degree from Rutgers University’s Mason Gross Art – New Brunswick, NJ.
Coco’s thesis professor, the renowned performance and video artist, Raphael Montanez Ortiz, is quoted in the book, “Joseph’s art is spreading a renewed dialogue on the mystical, and spiritual in art. His inner visioning is the envy of the Gods”.
2010’s re-issue of Coco’s four films entitled, THE RE-MASTERED-DVD-COLLECTION, is in the museums of California’s MOMA – SF, LA County and DeYoung Museums, New York’s Whitney and Guggenheim, and Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art and Museum Of Fine Art. With over 95 solo exhibitions including four European Museums, over 550 works of art in 450 Private Patrons, and International Collections, such as Gulbenkian Museum – Lisbon, Galleria Nazionale – Rome, and Kridel Securities – Paris.
Joe Coco is also a versatile performer with infectious energy. An American songwriter, singer, and guitarist, he has performed from New York’s Folk City, L.A.’s Troubadour, to Rome’s Teatro Sistina. Opening for B.B. King, KebMo, Commander Cody, and more, Coco was with Warner Bros for 3-years. A prolific songwriter, with 800 songs and 58 albums, Coco hails from Passaic, New Jersey, residing in Flagstaff, Arizona for eleven years and Messina, Sicily for 5 years. The Rock ‘N Roll Hall Of Fame’s Special Collection and Library of Protest Music includes five of Coco’s albums. This includes 1997’s, BLUES HOUSE – A Blues Opera, one of the 1st blues operas ever written. It is also in the prestigious collections of W.C. Handy Foundation – Memphis, Smithsonian Folk Life Center – D.C., and the House Of Blues Education Center – Boston.
Coco is an Adjunct Professor teaching Art Appreciation, Studio, and History Of Rock n Rap courses at Centenary University and Delaware Valley University since 2004, and Montclair State University since 1999.
ABOUT CENTENARY UNIVERSITY
Founded in 1867 by the Newark Conference of the United Methodist Church, Centenary University’s academic program integrates a solid liberal arts foundation with a strong career orientation. This mix provides an educational experience that prepares students to succeed in the increasingly global and interdependent world. The University’s main campus is located in Hackettstown, N.J., with its equestrian facility in Washington Township.