Kent State University Emeritus Art Professor Joseph O'Sickey Dies

Renowned northeast Ohio artist Joseph O'Sickey passed away at 94 on Monday, just one day after his latest exhibition at the Canton Museum of Art concluded. 

The emeritus art professor at Kent State University's last exhibit was called "Joseph O'Sickey: Unifying Art, Life and Love," which featured 160 works during the seven decades of his life dedicated to art. 

A documentary about O'Sickey, who will received the 2013 Ohio Governor’s Award for the Arts, premiered on PBS on May 3. 

O'Sickey died Monday after a two year battle with lymphoma, reports The Plain Dealer. He was in hospice's care at Robertson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna, Cleveland Heights architect Robert Blatchford told Cleveland.com. 

Several of the artist's oil and watercolor pieces featured the water and gardens of his Twin Lakes home and some were of his life, Algesa, who died in 2006 at 89 years old. 

A private memorial service was on Tuesday at the Wood-Kortright-Borkoski Funeral Home in Ravenna. A public celebration of Joseph and Algesa will be scheduled at a later time. 

O'Sickey taught at Kent State University for about 30 years. 

"One of the things Joe always talked to people about was perspective really in terms of many things: living your life, being creative, thinking about art, drawing and painting," Shawn Gordon, director of advancement for the College of the Arts told the Record-Courier. "He was constantly challenging you to sort of think outside of what you think you see."

O'Sickey's work has been collected by world-renowned institutions across the country, including the Cleveland Museum of Art. 

In an interview with The Plain Dealer in December, O'Sickey said:

"I’ve had a wonderful life ... and I had Algesa. No matter how successful another artist might be, he didn’t have Algesa.”