The Legacy of Fort Worth’s Outsider Artist

Today is going to be brutal. Many in Fort Worth who knew and loved artist Jeremy Joel are coming to terms with his untimely death. The details of the 37-year-old artist’s death are not public, but friends close to his family have confirmed that his body was found in his Fort Worth apartment yesterday.

photo credit: Austin Cochran

The week leading up to that tragic news was full of hope that Fort Worth’s outsider artist had simply gone off the grid. Joel had been known to ghost on his friends before. We held out hope until the grim end, and now we are having to process what a Fort Worth without Jeremy Joel looks like.

Explaining what Joel meant to the local artist community is nearly impossible because he touched on so many formative moments in our city’s recent history. Fort Worth was his canvas, and he used that backdrop to create legacies like Bobby on Drums, SAM Gallery, and Art Tooth.

I knew Joel’s works long before I met him. His vibrant, graffiti-tinged murals now define spaces like Avoca Coffee Roasters, Spiral Diner & Bakery, and Inspiration Alley in the Foundry District. Joel was the quintessential folk artist. He had no formal training as an artist and yet his art captured the imagination of locals and the attention of discerning art collectors.

There was something honest about his work that always struck me. While many artists struggle with the technical aspects of painting, Joel’s development as an artist came from personal struggles. He made no secret of growing up with a father who was addicted to crack cocaine. Tragically, Joel inherited his father’s predisposition to addiction.

I entered Joel’s orbit several years as a writer who was documenting the beginnings of our city’s current crop of art collectives. Joel was already collaborating with Jay Wilkinson, Brandon Pederson, and other locals who have gone on to become masters in their respective fields. Joel and his cohorts threw an ambitious show in 2015 called Bobby on Drums.

“We want to push the limits of what contemporary work is in our home town while helping our community to grow and breed its own artists and creative thinkers,” Joel wrote on the event’s Facebook page. The show featured works by Joel, Wilkinson, James Talambas, Diana Urbina, Pederson, Chip Tompkins, Ramiro Ramirez, and others.

With the help of friends, Joel went on to create an art space on Race Street under the banner of Bobby on Drums. Fort Worth’s young creatives found a home there, and the genesis of several art collectives can trace their roots to that formative time.

Joel’s heart was always in supporting local artists however he could. His home just south of West Magnolia Avenue became SAM Gallery. Joel used the space to feature artists at a time when opportunities to show work were still scarce.

While Fort Worth’s outsider artist continued to push for better work by local artists and greater opportunities to show and sell work, he was also gaining recognition among established galleries and art buyers. Fort Works Art signed Joel and featured him on the solo show A Beatbox Caviar in 2018.

I’ve never seen Joel smile as intensely as he did that evening. It was a smile that came from being surrounded by friends who were every bit his family.

Joel’s most recent project was a biannual art show that launched last May at Shipping & Receiving. The show brought in notable artists from both coasts and overseas. Fort Worth needed to step up, he told me at the time. Joel was never one to wait. If his home city needed to build networks with artists and buyers from across the country, he was going to make it happen.

Courtesy of Edward Brown

The last time I spoke with Joel was around March. He wanted to see if I could promote his next show. Rather than compete with Spring Gallery Night, Joel wanted to use his time and resources to create an event that would be the “unofficial pre-party for the entire art community.” The show was canceled as COVID-19 began spreading in North Texas.

Joel was always thinking of ways to help his friends and community. There are people in life who leave indelible marks on everyone they meet. Joel was one of those people. It is going to take a long time for this community to work through the grief of losing a dear friend. When we come out on the other side, we’ll have his memories, artworks, and legacy projects to remind us of the beauty this great artist and incredible human being gifted us.