The artist doing a yoga pose in front of one his own recent paintings © Maryam Eisler
Joel Mesler speaks to LUX’s Chief Contributing Editor, Maryam Eisler, about the under-layers of his eye candy paintings deeply rooted in childhood trauma, his switch from dealer to artist, his Jewish heritage and how sobriety has informed his art.
Maryam Eisler: You?ve moved from L.A. to the Lower East Side to The Hamptons. You’ve been dealing in art and now you?re producing art. Have both sides of the equation been enjoyable"

Joel Mesler: I am definitely most present and more content now? for sure when I am producing art. I have no regrets and it?s this path that led me here, so it’s all good.
ME: How has sobriety informed your work"
JM: Well, I think that is very much part of that process of change. I have realised that pre -sobriety, I lived in the ego. It was all about me. But I think there’s a process in the act of getting sober, of surrendering, like falling to your knees a little bit and saying ?Okay, clearly I’m not the captain of this ship?. It was important to realise that I don’t have all the answers, that I don’t know exactly what I’m doing and that I am going to ask for help. But my story is not unique, you know.
Joel Mesler’s wall of inspiration © Maryam Eisler
I think that that process shifted my mindset to such an extreme that it completely changed my life, like a spiritual awakening. Pre- getting sober, t...