Dirk Joseph tells stories—of inner worlds, the sacred, and the possibilities of dreams—with paint, paper, and puppets.
Baltimore-based multimedia artist and arts educator Dirk Joseph creates paintings and cast paper sculptures depicting the sacred, mystical, and natural worlds. He’s also a puppeteer and crankie artist, who founded String Theory Theater and performs with his daughters Koi and Azaria. He was introduced to crankies, a form of visual storytelling using handmade scrolls, by Valeska Populoh, a fellow Baltimorean whose mother, Ursula, also practices the art form. A storyteller and performer since childhood, he uses his performances and art practice as a means to actualize dreams and ideas. “I thought of art and play as the same thing, a ritual to indulge the imagination in crafting simulations of reality that would then resonate into reality,” Joseph says. His new puppet show Defrag, supported by a grant from the Jim Henson Foundation, premiered at Black Cherry Puppet Theater in Baltimore, a crankie epicenter, in early November. Sarah Jane Nelson wrote about Joseph and other members of the tight-knit crankie community in “Hand Turned Tales” in the Winter 2024 issue of American Craft.
Rear view of Feel, a 2020 crankie by Joseph, altered wooden dresser drawer, dowels, Masonite, wire, cardboard, tracing paper, 39 x 29 x 10 in.
