A memorial and celebration of Joe’s life will be held Saturday July 21, next to Art City in the Avant Garden, 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm, 197 Dubbers Street, Ventura, off Olive Street up from West Main Street. Refreshments will be served. His friends and art associates are invited. (Park in nearby lots and take care walking across Olive.) Hosted by ARTLIFE, INC. a 501c3 organization.
Joe Cardella was born in 1945 in New Britain, Connecticut. An early stint in the U. S. Navy to Greece and Mykonos made a lasting impression. He eventually made the southern California coast his home to evoke that idyllic sun-lit ocean place of myth, art, and creative energy.
Settling in Ventura in 1988, he helped transform the local art scene into an innovative community, inspired local artists and encouraged others to make art, many for the first time. Works on paper, mail art, conceptual art, Fluxus art, sculpture, assemblage and graphic art were his own media. He helped form the Ventura Artist Union.
He also began publishing the international magazine ART-LIFE in 1981. He solicited artists here and around the world to submit 200 multiples of their single work that he bound in the Original Limited Edition Monthly magazine for 25 years—“A masterpiece in every issue,” he boasted.
He died May 15, 2018 of esophageal cancer. His ashes will head back to Greece for dispersal. His legacy of promoting the creative arts here and elsewhere will continue through a trust he leaves behind.
