Biography

1959-1964 

Birth
(September 27)
Milwaukee, WI

As a child, Joe enjoys solitude, stays in bed
much of the time. “When you talked while
you were young, no one could understand
you”, were words his mother would say years
later; stuttering was to become an influential
part of his life.

Suffers early accident on Christmas Eve
involving older brother, a winter tassel hat
and scalding water; Dr. Torcivia tends to Joe’s
small bare shoulder.

Kindergarten: blankets, pulling window shades
down for naps, wooden floors, fruit, small
button down shirts and bullies. Witnesses his
father’s drinking, parents arguing, a kitchen
table is flipped over; plays with neighbor
downstairs, a young Italian immigrant boy
nick-named “Pino”.

1964-1972

Attends St. Rita grade school: morning mass,
milk, pretzels and pagan babies; becomes an
altar boy, listens to the nuns, noting how their
breath and garments always have the smell of
soup, does homework (usually), is bullied by
others, becomes a hardened bully himself
(but very soft inside); hates math: his older
brother John does math homework for him;
tolerates geography; is excited about drawing
(Joe attributes this both to the conventional 
Bugs Bunny and airplane drawings his father
makes for him and drawings done by his cousin,
Joe Emanuele (his elder cousin’s quick accurate
renderings of aunts and uncles amaze him);
Joe’s teachers like his drawings, he is
commissioned to do classroom artwork:
Halloween witches, Santas, reindeer and
Thanksgiving Day turkeys; remembers mostly
Miss Wilgosh, Mrs. Goodrich, Sister Ann
Josepha, and Sister Maria; plays football
very aggressively on the playground during
recess in the winter; wants to be Dick Butkus.
In 8th grade reads The Exorcist, then sees
the movie - is terrified and curious; in response,
he and his friend create a mini-haunted house
in his friend’s home.

St. Rita School learns of the untimely death of
a friend to many, Chuckie Miller, who died
by drowning. Decades later, in graduate
school, Joe paints from memory a picture of
remembrance of Chuckie.

Father Tom from St. John Cathedral High
School, along with Cathedral students, visit
Joe’s 8th grade class to recruit new students.
They present a slide-show about the high
school accompanied by the song “What You
See Is What You Get”, by The Dramatics. This
marriage of music with images makes a
memorable impression on Joe. Goes to
movies with his mother and older cousin
Nancy; his mother listens to his incessant
questions about movies. In eighth grade,
takes class picture with oily hair in white
turtle-neck shirt; finishes grade school.

1973

During the summer, plays baseball from dawn
till dusk with friends, eats very little during
the day; (idolizes Cincinnati Red’s catcher
Johnny Bench); Dabbles in magic & sleight-of-
hand tricks, tries to amaze his family & friends.
Avoiding family tensions around the house,
Joe spends a record number of overnight
weekends at his friend Mike Hiland’s house.
Is known to steal his sister’s toys, watches,
etc. and take them apart to see how they work,
without knowing how to reassemble them.
Becomes interested in martial arts; wants to be
Bruce Lee, even cuts his hair to look like him.

1974-1977

Attends St. John Cathedral H.S., tries out for
athletics (baseball & wrestling), fails miserably,
develops art skills instead, thanks to the
encouragement of his art instructor Sharon
Retzlaff; wins 2nd prize in school-wide art
contest with a weirdly surrealistic drawing.
Has wild fantastical crushes on girls, but is
too afraid to approach them. His parents
move to Milwaukee’s northwest side. Joe
works out physically on a fanatical basis,
in the manner of Bruce Lee; is very fit
and trim. St. John Cathedral closes
down after his junior year; he graduates
from Custer High School, where he earns
a Recognition Award for Commercial Art.

1977

At age 18, with no plans for college,
lands a job with All State Maintenance.
While working in a factory in Beloit, WI
at 5 AM, he plunges 50 feet from
an overhead crane, breaks his right
leg and injures lower back. Spends six
weeks in the hospital. Family believes
"angels" saved his life and perhaps he
was “put here for a reason”. Doctors
attribute recovery to his youth and
tough physical condition.

1979-1988

As rehabilitation for his accident, the State of WI
agrees to pay for his schooling: he chooses to
study film at the University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee, but the torture (or what he
perceives as torture) involved in collaborating
with others and requesting film equipment
(i.e., talking) on a weekly basis becomes
too much for him; desperate, he seeks
solace in the life drawing studios at the
University; now it seems he finds what he is
looking for -- connecting with others silently 
drawing, analyzing and celebrating the
marvelous human form without the
cumbersome intercession of speech; he
switches from film to drawing & painting;
admires the work of American painter
Andrew Wyeth, then is obsessed with the
art of Alberto Giacometti; he is also
influenced by UWM professors Alicia
Czechowski and Roy R. Behrens. During this
time, he idolizes Canadian pianist Glenn Gould.

After graduating from UWM in 1986, he learns
how difficult it is to move away from home: he
is accepted with a full scholarship to the MFA
painting program at Boston University, but
after just two weeks, grows fearful, homesick
and withdraws from the program. The following
year, he is accepted to the University of
Chicago MFA program, but after two weeks
withdraws. Next year, he reapplies to U of C,
to which he is accepted, but again, in bizarre
fashion, withdraws. Understandably, the
art dept., his friends and family cannot
understand his actions. The next year, he
schools himself by spending 3 months alone
in Washington, DC, copying master paintings
from the originals in the National Gallery of Art.

1989 - 1991

With his mother and brother Peter, he helps
take care of grandma Emanuele at their
home until she passes away in 1989. Decides
to apply to the Cornell University MFA program;
brother-in-law Mike Zaffiro takes bets at his
bar/restaurant on whether Joe will stay in or
withdraw from school. In fall of 1989, hires
Ami Peters, who works as his painter’s model
two days per week for 3 months; shortly
afterward, Ami moves back to her home-state
New Jersey.

While working for a West Allis, WI photo-
retouching lab, Joe learns he is admitted to
Cornell’s MFA program with a full tuition
assistantship. After a shaky start (as many
expected), his friend E. Tom Geniusz
helps him resolve to stay in school.
Summer of ‘91, Joe is invited by Ami to
spend a week at her parent’s home in
New Jersey, marking the beginning of their
relationship. He graduates from Cornell
one year later.

1992-1996

After graduation, Joe moves in with Ami; they
live with her parents along the southern New
Jersey shore. After one year, they get their
own place.

He lands adjunct teaching appointments at
the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, 
Atlantic Community College and the Richard
Stockton College in New Jersey, teaching
drawing, painting, and 2-D design. Takes part in
a solo exhibit and several group faculty
exhibitions. Maintains correspondence
with friend/mentor Roy R. Behrens.

Increasingly disenchanted with painting, he
has the idea to create a video documentary
on the maternal side of his family, with the
help of his cousins Joe Emanuele and Tom
Vicini. In 1994, his father dies; one year
later, he begins a video documentary
chronicling his father’s life - 15 yrs later,
the documentary is finally finished.

In 1996, he marries Ami. They honeymoon
in England. The following year, he teaches
for a year at his graduate alma mater 
Cornell University, during which time he 
corresponds with renowned art historian
E.H. Gombrich.

1997

Despite great financial hardship, Ami and Joe
make the best of the beginning years of their
marriage. Joe continues to teach while doing
freelance graphic art work.

1999-2000

Moves to Seattle, WA with Ami while she earns
her master’s degree in whole systems design
at Antioch University.

After 22 years, Joe decides to return to the
study of film. In the fall of 2001, he attends
the MFA program in digital video at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. As part
of his studies, he produces a 20-minute
documentary on his Aunt Rose Calarco and
her son Alex. During this time, he also
designs the Emanuele Family.com web site,
which flourishes for a few years before
closing down. Quickly noticing the UWM
film program’s unspoken disavowal of video,
he withdraws and uses his student loan-
acquired video equipment to learn on his
own. Fall of 2002, Joe and Ami return
to New Jersey.

2002-2009

After their return to New Jersey, they
settle back into their rented home
overlooking the salt marsh in Cape
May Court House, after which Joe
teaches part-time again at The
Richard Stockton College of New
Jersey. In November of 2003, their 
son Michael Joseph is born:
9 lbs, 7 ounces. Joe also starts a
freelance design business, 
VeronaDesign, producing digital video,
print media and web content for clients.
In 2004, Joe and family leave their
home in Cape May Court House to
buy a home in the “bloody Third Ward"
section of Millville, NJ, an old glass
industry town. In December of ‘04, Joe
answers an ad on the HigherEd.com jobs
site and trains to teach online for the 
Art Institute of Pittsburgh - Online
Division. October of 2007, he is hired
as a full-time online instructor.

In August, 2009, he, Ami and Michael 
move to Phoenix, AZ.