I’m Joe Peterson, and I’m exploring industrial complexes.

I am quite anti-war, but I grew up surrounded by the military’s presence and eventually began working for the U.S. Government, an organization that dropped 26,172 bombs in seven countries in 2016 and continues to be imperfect. War keeps us safe. That’s what I’ve been told my entire life and unfortunately I do believe that.

War keeps us safe and safety is a sliding scale. Wars don’t keep Libya, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, or Syria safe.

If you’re a victim, where are your scars? If you’re not the aggressor, why do you have teeth?

Behind Me and In Front of Me (2019)

Mixed Media on Fiber Board

The invisible hand places you into your economic stature and me into mine. What we cannot see is difficult to change, and that’s precisely why the hand is invisible.

By visualizing capitalism’s more brutal moments and connecting them to oneself, one can strive for clarity within the chaos. This piece, created on the back of my dresser in 2019, illustrates my life as a product of violent, often unseen forces. Its goal is to be both reflective of and critical to its observer who both views the piece and actively participates in it.