“Contrary to everything listed on this site and how over the top it may be or how intense, complex or crazy it may look like, I’m really a dead simple, idiot level kind of stupid simple guy. I give people a really wide berth because you can never tell when they are having a bad time of life or not, but, like all men, respect is huge with me. Keeping my word of honour defines everything in my life. If I ever break that bond, then everything in my life, my legacy, character and reason for being, shatters. I like cycling, long walks, kittens, puppies and engaging in debates about the current state of politics in Canada. I enjoy astrophysics, ancient history and inventing things. Most of all, I enjoy proving myself and my ideas. I also enjoy cooking and socialising with friends. Too bad it seems I’m locked into an insane system of constantly working. I’m a romantic poet at heart, but being single by choice has consigned that side of me to atrophy. I love designing and building things that advance Canada. I’m also a certified Class 3 trucker, have worked the worst jobs in the oil patch in Northern Alberta and know how to ‘Get’er Done’. I love chess and almost beat the Canadian Chess champion in high school, he only won because of the initiative of playing white. Oh well. Welcome to my site.”

-Joe Green

My life came into sharp focus when the events of 17 April, 2002 happened. Edmonton was shocked into a state of suspended animation and given how much death I’ve experienced in my life, I knew I had to do something. I lived on 97 Street between 111 Ave and 118 Ave, a main road with a median boulevard of trees, I went out and placed at my eye level, hundreds of yellow ribbons so that when anyone drove through that area, they were experiencing a memorial set up to be as exacting as I could make it. Sadly, I never took any photos, but as a result, helped to start the now civic tradition of the Yellow Ribbon Route.

Given my experience with profound losses in life, this prepared me to handle what came with this event: the absolutely intense, emotionally high pitched sorrow, soul shattering tear filled screams, the liquid black torment of sadness and so, so much more. I’ve met with, interacted with, on a deeply personal and intimate level, many family members who comprise the Canadian Forces family and what I experienced, forever changed my life and gave me purpose, meaning and a guiding star to navigate my life by.

During this period, I was enduring a personal relationship breakup and I was deeply depressed and suicidal. Every hour of every day, in my heart ached, soul shattered existence, it was this project which kept me motivated and prevented me from ending my life. My commitment to those I gave my word to, and thanks to the profound respect enshrined within me by my father for the Canadian Armed Forces and RCAF, I made the  commitment with myself that I would not do anything drastic until the book was finished. When it was, some two and a half years later of being immersed in what amounted to as a ‘Book of Death’, I was able to pull myself away from that brink, and enrol in Emily Carr University. I feel that you can’t produce or extract brilliant artwork, regardless of medium, unless you come face to face with the abyss. While the book was in the binding process, I was involved in a cycling accident whereby I collided with a skateboarder on a sidewalk, I was thrown into traffic onto the path of an oncoming car, my head landed right in front of the tire tread and what I can only really say is I experienced an intense supernatural experience where something grabbed me around my shirt collar and yanked me up. My core muscles were not activated and I felt the same sensation one would feel if an external force was applied to your neck and subsequent acceleration on the spinal column. I should have died that day, but I believe, one of the four soldiers who were the subject of my book, rescued me and saved my life. Every hour of every day since, has been deeply appreciated as I feel like I am living a life which frankly should not exist because I should have died that day. When my flag was unveiled at Edmonton Garrison at 3 PPCLI RHQ, I recalled this story and presented them with a painting titled “Faster than Angels” and painted with the Commanding Officer, Deputy Commanding Officer and Regimental Sergeant Major in front of a full parade of soldiers. To watch the documentary, please visit the military section.

Being or coming to terms with the fact that I am an artist has not been easy. Its been a journey of immense hardship, sacrifice and a “How bad do you really want it?” sort of thing. I am not an artist because I chose this path. I am an artist because I simply had no other choice because my expression, freedom, independence to pursue ideas and projects mean everything to me. As an artist, I have managed to accomplish an immense amount of things with the highest being my flag in orbit. However, although others may rest on those laurels, I always push and drive as hard as I can on ideas that appeal to me for whatever reason. 

As a passionate, dedicated artist, from those looking in, it may seem like I am a hyper-intense ball of energy, when in essence, I am the furthest from that. If I can equate it to a hurricane, the works I produce may seem like a storm, but at the eye of that storm, I have a very, very relaxed core as if suntanning on the yacht within that storm. I have experienced the highest forms of emotional intensity, and I choose to live a life where each moment is cherished, appreciated and prefer to lead of life of calm and peace-filled gentleness and love. I adore slow dancing and although so many regard my kindness as a weakness, in my experiences, I’ve learned to give people a wide berth because for whatever reason, they may be having a bad day or week or whatever. Within that zone I provide, its barriers of respect are strong as solid carbon steel. Cross the line of disrespect, then it won’t go unanswered nor unaddressed. As an Alpha Male, I love building things, designing things, producing things, but always approach it from a position of love, gentle kindness and loyalty. As a single and undamaged man and leader of my own company, someday, if I ever find myself in a relationship, I want all the romance, love and slow dancing, respect, passion, joy and fun. If I can’t find it, then that’s okay. I suppose I’ll catch her in the next life. I’ve seen too many relationships which are so caustic and harmful, that I won’t allow that into my life. As a young man, I didn’t pursue a life in the Priesthood because I wanted a family. As such, as a man in my prime, I’ll choose to remain loyal to her, whomever she is, wherever and whenever she is, and if I die a happily single man, I won’t compromise on that and simply focus on my work and hopefully inspire people along the way and when I say, I’ll catch her in the next life, I am very, very comfortable with that. Until then, I will channel all that passion, loyalty, love, fidelity, strength and honour, into the next best thing: my love of Canada and those who serve. 🙂

Here is my personal seal. What does it mean? It is a fusion of the mission logo of STS-115/12A in which I sent the flag of Third Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Battle Group into orbit, and cap badge and crest with the Leaf and Laurels which define my personal standard of excellence I must always adhere to.

To me, it means this: Canadian Armed Forces have sacrificed their lives for my personal freedoms, freedom of expression most of all. As an artist, as all artists know, when we are dialed in, we can create works so inflammatory that it can run the risk of getting us killed. In other countries, that is in fact what happens. In the poem by LCol John McCrae (1872-1918), he wrote this:

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row, 
That mark our place, and in the sky, 
The larks, still bravely singing, fly, 
Scarce heard amid the guns below. 

We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe! 
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high! 
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

These words:

To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high! If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields

I take these words so incredibly serious, it is the bedrock of my soul as a Canadian Artist. Why this? Why Canada? It is my duty as a Canadian Artist to be one of many who have caught the torch and to hold it high from failing hands, who gave their lives in the service of Canada and her ideals of which I and we all, enjoy today. Those freedoms have been purchased by the horrendous losses our country paid for on the battle field truly beginning with the Battle of Vimy Ridge.  

It is always front and centre in my soul, that these are the ideals of our country and as a Canadian Artist whose made Canada an element of my art practice, I must, to the highest and best of my abilities and characters, assume the orientation of constantly being aware of and respecting those principle and core ideas, without exception. Period. Full stop. If soldiers gave their lives for me, my rights to express myself, then the least I can do is honour them, in my own way, while respecting the integrity of the symbol of the torch. As an idealist within my practice, I rigidly conform to those ideals because its where our war dead are buried and I can think of no finer orientation than to honour those who served and sacrificed for Canada. I can produce work which can get me killed if I was located in another country, however not here in Canada. That freedom and respect for it, must always be reminded of where it came from and in my world, its from those who serve. If I, like so many modern day politicians, promised the military community something, then did not deliver or I overtly lied, I could simply not live with myself as it would have disparaged and obliterated the legacy of my body of work. If I can keep my promises to the military community, be honest, transparent and sincere, so can politicians.

For me, the frozen pigments within my soul were thawed by the torch caught, imparting a profound, soul enriching, life altering, sacred respect which under no conditions or circumstances, or price, ever compromise nor yield in for any reason. If I must go down, then it shall be in accordance with those who ignited that torch and I shall hold true, until my last breath. 

This seal, represents how only because of those standards, a transcendent reality can emerge. In this case, it was sending a flag up into space and to escort the souls of our fallen home to the heavens, as the highest form of everything I can possibly do to say “Thank you” to those who died for me. The rope that I had attached to the flag, are elements which I very rarely give to people, as a way to inspire them, that the entire embodiment of the freedoms of expression, our rights, or safety and security and freedom of thoughts, are all underpinned by those who serve or who have and sometimes, sacrifice their lives so that we may go on enjoying those freedoms. Space Rope is priceless, because it represents the embodiment of that message. It essentially says “Your freedoms, dreams, hopes and aspirations, whichever they may be, however they come, they are welcome and safe here. They were paid for by those who died and this rope, escorted their souls as far as far as we can go, as thanks to them. If it comes to you, let it be a reminder to be the best of the very best you can be, embody the ideals they gave their lives for, discover who and what you are, fully and without reservation, and hear the words “For we are out of time and life. Don’t waste yours.” Let those words truly inspire you as they have me, and leave your soul winded as to the gravity of its meaning.

Even if I was tempted, I simply could not yield in adhering to these standards because of how my soul was engineered. As the world drifts away, it is possible, through the hope filled passion, to bend it back to persistently reflect these ideals for future generations. This is the core of my identity.