In 2014, Joel's 10-year-old son asked him to make something he loved to hang in his room. He then tapped into his own inner child and started to think about all of his former toy robots, which was the inspiration for his first GloboBot series. Once he completed the Dallas GloboBot for his son, Joel went on to shooting some of the most iconic buildings around the world to grow his extensive collection (Amsterdam, Bangkok, Barcelona, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, DC, Detroit, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Madrid, Miami, Montevideo, NYC, Paris, Phnom Penh, Rome, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, Toronto)
When Joel sees an urban skyline, he sees all of the pieces (faces, torsos, legs) that inspire him for each GloboBot. He taps into the unseen beauty for each robot, such as corner windows becoming a pair of eyes, or a set of towers to create a pair of legs. “A lot of initial planning takes place. Each city’s architecture is researched and plotted onto a pocket size map. Not just any building can become part of a GloboBot. There needs to be something unique about a structure.”
Joel attended art school in Detroit for Graphics Communications, where he fell in love with the mix of historic Art Deco skyscrapers and post-modern neo-gothic spires that make up its skyline. He then moved on to Atlanta to attend the Portfolio Center and study Art Direction. From there, he went on to assist commercial photographers in Los Angeles, where he learned about lighting, set building and film development. This background lead to creative opportunities in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Dallas, Singapore, and New York where he always had a camera by his side.
His ability to see beauty in every small urban detail has led to the extremely thoughtful and extensive GloboBot Series, which has been featured in many prominent contemporary art shows around the world (Art on Paper/NYC, Affordable Art Fair/New York & Hong Kong, AQUA/Miami, artMRKT/San Francisco, Art Market/Bridehampton, Baboo Gallery Group Art Exhibition/NYC, Hogarth Biannual Exhibition/NYC, Michele Mariaud Gallery/NYC, Rising Stars Releases/Amsterdam, SELECT Contemporary Art Fair/NYC, SCOPE/Miami) which lead to commissions from prominent art collectors. Joel’s Hudson Yards GloboBot had a full page feature in the Sept. 30, 2019 Technology Issue of The New Yorker. His art was also chosen to be made into an oversized flag that has been flying in Rockefeller Center from Jan 22, 2020 to March 25, 2021 celebrating New York City’s diverse culture, vibrant energy and strength.
