Joe Sinsabaugh Spotlight
Joe Sinsabaugh
Written by Nor Osborne, September 2025
One of Joe’s favorite early memories is of him in church at age 5, squished between his parents in the pews, squirming as he moved pencil across paper. Rather than listening to the sermons, he drew pictures of airplanes. He had no idea then that this small moment would hint at the path his life would take: as both a pilot and an artist.
“I’ve loved art from the beginning,” Joe says, reflecting on all of the art classes he took throughout grade school and prep school.
“When I went to college, I didn't think I was going to keep doing it,” he admits. “But then I would find myself in the library looking at art magazines, and then I just had to take a sculpture class, and then I just had to take a photography class, and so on. I couldn't get away.”
After returning from France, Joe started active duty in the Air Force. Though his career focus shifted to aviation, he never let go of his artistic side. During his 9 years of service, he explored carpentry through the military’s woodworking shops, crafting furniture and honing his skills with wood as a medium.
Joe went on to fly with Delta Airlines for 32 years. His time in the sky deeply influenced his art, prompting atmospheric skyscapes drawn from his view above the clouds, and vivid landscapes inspired by the places he landed. Whether in Hawaii, Guam, or Diego Garcia, each new environment sparked fresh ideas and compositions.
“Flying a supersonic jet is just an incredible rush, and there's nothing else in the world like it, but having a blank canvas and throwing that first slash of paint is a rush of a whole different sort. There's nothing else in life quite like it.”
In recent years, Joe has conducted most of his creativity nestled within a gorgeous wooded farm in St. Louisville, a property he inherited from his late uncle. This change of scenery has swayed much of his artistry towards sculptures, using the woodworking skill he developed in the Air Force with the fallen trees from his property. The idyllic setting of the farm has influenced many new landscape paintings as well.
Joe draws creative influence from a range of additional sources, including petroglyphs, Native American culture, mobiles, florals, and perhaps most notably, skulls. While many of his other paintings utilize a sweeping gestural technique, his dark and hollow depictions of skulls are created with the utmost precision, with rigid intentionally behind each stroke.
“It's fun to play with different techniques,” Joe explains. “Different techniques just give you a different emotional response. You don't need the precision with the landscape as you do with a skull.”
Joe recognizes his skulls are not everyone’s cup of tea.
“Around 50% of the people that are really into it, and then 50% are incredibly repelled by it,” he says.
But it’s as Joe depicts this symbol of death, that he feels truly alive.
“Art has saved my life. I ended up being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and didn't know if I'd ever be able to fly again, and then went through a divorce as well. But art, in both of those moments, was so therapeutic for me. It was a life saving outlet of creativity.”
