Profile of Artist Joel Dean Stockdill

Every year Ghost Ship has, of course, a ship. Last year it was a massive submarine, the year before it was a space ship, and this year it was the main stage equipped with billowing white sails. And every year the ship is built by Joel Dean Stockdill, the shipmaster of the event and an artist with the prairie upbringing of North Dakota.

At the first Ghost Ship seven years ago, Joel was one of many artists who brought pre-made art to the event. After moving into the communal art studio of Hanger 1 on Treasure Island, he took on the role of art director the following year, becoming the curator of the event’s site specific art. Now, each year, Joel helps with the overall design of the event and the conceptualization of each years theme. This year’s — Asylum. “But it’s a total group effort,” he emphasizes.

“Every year I’ve pushed to have more site specific art, or installations that are made just for this event, because I think there’s something really magical in that. There’s something special about having stuff that’s unique for one time. It has a very short life span.”

Although he stresses this temporality, when it comes to the ship the materials get reused year after year and the initial wood typically begins as reclaimed. This year the ship’s wood had been used for three different ships. “Everything gets reused, if not for Ghost Ship than for another project with our studio.”

Ghost Ship has been a part of Joel’s life since he moved to California seven years ago. A move that was both across the country and a transition into being a self supported artist.

“I’ve been doing art and sculpture all my life, but about four to five years ago, I made the decision to stop doing any work other than that which would give me creative freedom and employed me as an artist.” His portfolio includes doing sculpture and artwork for galleries, museums, festivals, events, and staging for musical acts. He just recently returned from working in Europe.

Although more and more he’s moving in the direction of doing work shops.

“I’m interested more in working with different groups of people who may not consider themselves artists, and using art as a sort of therapeutic means. Although I don’t think I really like the term art therapy, because therapy sounds so much like fixing something that’s wrong. Art is an expressive healing tool to express things that we can’t with words, or in other ways. It’s not necessarily the art that is the expression, but the act of creation and of collaboration.”

Working with others, in tight knit groups, is a huge component of Joel’s life as an artist. As well as learning to coordinate large groups of volunteers to achieve big projects in a short amount of time — like those who volunteered to help with Ghost Ship.

Although he’s struggled with making art for parties — “an endless celebration,” as he calmly puts it — he’s no longer a person that parties and sees this work as s a deep part of his personal growth. He’s come to a better, more balanced, place with it. Now able to appreciate a lot of the underlying benefits of festival culture.

It’s obvious, however, that it’s this process of creation and the community effort behind it that drives his participation. Being at the warehouse for the build, even sleeping on site sometimes, is the atmosphere he most enjoys. “It’s like family,” he says.

— Originally published in 2014 on the now defunct 1690Post.com

http://1690post.com/an-endless-celebration-joel-dean-stockdill-talks-about-creating-art-for-parties/