"Homeward Bound"; Oil on canvas by Bodner Joseph;

"Homeward Bound"; Oil on canvas by Bodner Joseph; Size: 18"x24"; Joseph Bodner's first inspiration to paint came during World War 2, when he painted various insignias on Air Force Jackets and on the noses of the now vintage Bombers--"the pin-up types", he used to say. He flew many missions as a combat crewmember in the Air Force. It was divine fate and an ear infection that kept Joe in sickbay on the day his buddies were shot down, leaving only one survivor.
After the war, he studied at the Art Center in Los Angeles, specializing in Fine Art and Illustration.
Joseph's love of flying deeply influenced the heroic, outstretched skies that dominate the majority of his canvas regardless of the subject matter. For some time, he worked with Hanna-Barbera in their cartoon department and also at the M.G.M studios.
Although born in New Jersey, Joseph had become enamored with the wide-open spaces of the West, and his early paintings captured the gentle and solitary part of Western history. These early works were colorful and frequently featured a single building, cemetery, or carriage. Those fortunate collectors who own an early Bodner painting have an exciting reminiscence of our American heritage.
Over the years, Joseph Bodner's work has won many awards, and he was given the privilege to exhibit in a one-man show at the Los Angeles, County Museum of Art.