What is an artist to do when his body breaks down so he no longer can sculpt, craft and create pieces?

Years ago, Eric Joseph began toying with the tools and equipment his father, an American scientist working with Germans for the U.S. government after World War II, brought home from work. Today he is physically struggling to get around, and is dealing emotionally with the fact that he can’t wield the artist’s tools or the creative musical instruments he once played.

Finding an alternative way to express his creativity challenges him.

After years of mastering myriad skills, drills, brushes, saws and planes, he has hammered out works of art and shared his art and knowledge with others.  

He is a teacher, a writer, a tuner of fine instruments, each with an artistic flair. Not only does he tune his handmade guitars, he designs each one for a unique look and sound.

Thousands of students in Western Maine have benefited from his artistic guidance.  

But today, Joseph’s health problems won’t allow his body to handle the tools of his trade. His children have grown up in the house he and his estranged wife bought when they moved from Chicago in 1984. Now, living alone in the house is more than he can handle.  

It’s up for sale.  

He has sold or given away most of what he has created over the years. Hundreds of wooden and metal pieces adorn foyers, living rooms, and front and backyards around the world.

The large and colorful lobby mobile he made for the opening of Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in 1998 still hangs.  

“I heard some kids threw stuff on it and it doesn’t turn anymore, but it has been up there a long time,” Joseph said, as he watched his friends “Uncle Andy” Marsh and Gary “Big Gare” Dow wobble on scaffolding, wrestling with a shiny, whirly windmill piece of art tangled in a maze of trees, bushes and vines winding and weaving through shiny spokes and crevices. 

He has given away many of his creations, but some were too big.

Giant wood carvings, metal marvels that stand 15 feet in the air and a multitude of Joseph’s inspirations adorn his Hebron property, overlooking a tranquil valley of farms and trees. It’s an environment that can’t help but spark inspiration.  

Over the years, the landscape embraced, and even encased some of the art, but Joseph’s friends recently came to the rescue.  Marsh, who created Uncle Andy’s Digest two-dozen years ago and Dow, a real estate broker, have known Joseph for years.  

When Marsh and Dow heard of Joseph’s plight, they hatched yet another of their many business adventures and created a website for Joseph so he can market the few pieces he has left. The website, ericjosephart.com, is currently under construction and should be operational soon.

“It’s all a work in progress,” Joseph said, as he sat on his back porch “directing” and ribbing his friends as they worked to free a sculpture. Just “like life.”

rdillingham@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link