COAL MAN: OUTER FRAME
				Playsets from Coleman’s childhood, rediscovered in adulthood. They represent Joe’s enjoyment in manipulating figures and buildings, thereby controlling forces and people that he cannot control in his everyday life. “Junior Dynamite Blaster” appears again in The Big Bang Theory. Mutilated figures from “The Battle of the Blue and Gray” show up in The Mad Hatter.
			Various human remains from Coleman’s collections. Ownership of items such as St. Agnes and the human head in the jar are Coleman’s way of managing his fears of an uncontrollable, chaotic universe. According to Joe, “There is a comfort in collecting the dead—you have power over death by possessing it. They also taunt me with my future, and tempt me with their peaceful silence.”
							Wanda Jackson, one of Coleman’s favorite performers, representing the release that music offers from everyday suffering.
		Coleman’s mother and father. “My father is shown below a traffic light because his longest job was at Automatic Signal, the manufacturer of traffic lights. As in my 1994 painting Mommy/Daddy, the lights represent my father’s eyes everywhere.” Joe Coleman, Sr. carries the tools of escape in his hands, one being a bottle of booze and the other a handful of paintbrushes. “My mother’s image offers escape through sexuality and desire...a desire to continue suffering.”
		OUTER FRAME | CYCLE OF PAIN | CENTRAL CIRCLE
		© JoeColeman.com