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I’m not sure how many iguanaphiles can boast of having fab-
ricated the suit for RoboCop II, or being the visual effects

supervisor on Cat Woman, but Joel Friesch can (not that he
boasts — he doesn’t — and, yes, he met Halle Barry).

I’ve known Joel Friesch for 20 years, and his artistic talents
continue to amaze me. Our paths first crossed in the Milwaukee
Public Museum in the mid-1980s when Joel, as a fine arts
(painting and drawing) student at the University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee, was hired to model and paint amphibians and rep-
tiles for a permanent exhibit on rainforest ecology. As it was my
responsibility to oversee all aspects of the exhibit concerned with
herps, Joel and I had many interactions. During the multi-year
production of the exhibit, Joel intimated that his supervisor

wanted him to enhance the color of some of the critters to make
them more eye-catching. He told me he’d only paint them the
way I wanted them done. I was, of course, impressed with his
devotion to accuracy.

We had some live giant Hispaniolan treefrogs, Osteopilus
vastus, for the exhibit. On his own time, Joel carved and accu-
rately painted a model of this neat frog about 50 times life size.
On the night the exhibit opened, he had fastened it to a wall of
the exhibit and we enjoyed watching visitors’ surprise as they

108 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2005 HENDERSON

P R O F I L E

The Artist as Iguanaphile: 
A Profile of Joel Friesch

Robert W. Henderson

Section of Vertebrate Zoology, Milwaukee Public Museum
800 W. Wells Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53233, USA

Joel painting “Mugwumps” for David Cronenberg’s movie Naked
Lunch at Chris Walas, Inc. in the 1990s.

Joel clear-coating a model of a Burmese Python (Python molurus molu-
rus) modified and painted to look like a Green Anaconda (Eunectes
murinus) at the Milwaukee Public Museum in 1987. Photograph cour-
tesy of the Milwaukee Public Museum.

Joel painting reptiles with Jerry Persick for a rainforest exhibit at
Milwaukee Public Museum in 1987. Photograph courtesy of the
Milwaukee Public Museum.



IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2005 109PROFILE OF JOEL FRIESCH 

realized what they were seeing (that giant frog now resides in my
living room, a gift from my wife who bought it from Joel). Joel
came to the museum already enamored of iguanas. He had two
between 2nd and 5th grades, but was forced to donate them to
the Milwaukee Zoo because his parents felt they were “too big”
for him. Because we had to purchase some live Green Iguanas
in order to make detailed models for the exhibit, Joel asked me
to order two juveniles for him. I don’t think Joel has been with-
out iguanas since.

I knew Joel’s goal was to work in the movie industry as a
special effects artist. I had hoped he’d stay at the museum, but
showbiz beckoned; shortly after graduation, he headed for
California. Not surprisingly, success in the movies came fairly
quickly. He free-lanced for Disney and other studios before
assuming a permanent position with Tippett Studios in San
Francisco. As luck would have it, just as Joel was beginning his
career in the movies, the movies were in the process of going

almost exclusively to computer-generated special effects. Joel
learned the new techniques on-the-job, and he has graduated
from an animatronics technician on “Arachnophobia” to visual
effects supervisor on the forthcoming “Charlotte’s Web.”
Between his spider pics, Joel has worked on “Naked Lunch,”
“Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Mission to Mars,” “Cat
Woman,” and “Hellboy,” to name a few. He also has done lots
of commercials, winning a couple of Clio awards in the process.

A few years into his “Hollywood” career, Joel called and
asked when I was heading out for my next field trip and could
he come along. I was heavily involved with treeboas (Corallus) by
then, and making regular trips to Grenada. In 1993, Joel made
the first of his treeboa trips. I knew he’d be low maintenance in
the field: hardworking and no complaining. However, he went a
step farther by bringing along a supply of Pop Tarts for breakfast
to offset the monotonous menu of peanut butter sandwiches. Joel
was fearless in the field: he’d climb trees I was no longer agile
enough to ascend myself, and he always wanted to capture the
biggest treeboas. I can recall his first shot at capturing a large
female (uh, treeboa). It was perched low under some shrubbery
and Joel had to stoop low to get a good angle on it. Once you
commit to grabbing one, you can’t hesitate ‘cause they’ll nail you.
Joel hesitated and Joel got nailed. He yelped and bled, but he

Joel participated in the 2000 Shedd Aquarium trip to Andros Island,
Bahamas; shown here with the first capture of an Andros Iguana
(Cyclura cychlura cychlura).

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A portrait of “Billy” (Grand Cayman Blue Iguana, Cyclura lewisi) as
Joel first saw him at the breeding and headstarting facility on Grand
Cayman.

Treefrog (Osteopilus vastus) sculpture (above Joel), circa 1986-7. This
sculpture now hangs in the home of the author. Photographer
unknown.



caught the snake. Subsequently, Joel made a second trip to
Grenada and one to Trinidad, always in pursuit of treeboas.

Despite my best efforts to keep Joel focused on snakes, his
early fascination with iguanas would not go away. He counts see-
ing a male Iguana iguana sprawled on a branch high above a
river in Belize among his fondest memories. Working with
Chuck Knapp, his first sighting of Cyclura on Andros was
another high point, along with seeing Billy, the Blue Iguana (C.
lewisi) emerging from the brush to greet him for the first time
on Grand Cayman. Despite being ultra-sensitive to poisonwood
(Joel’s wife Cathy is a nurse, and, when she picked him up at the
airport after his return from Andros, the first stop was the emer-
gency room at the local hospital.), he has returned to the
Bahamas to be of assistance as needed.

Joel has been, and continues to be, active in iguana conser-
vation. He designed: the old and new logos for the International
Iguana Foundation, signs for protection of Iguana delicatissima
on St. Eustatius, a Hurricane Ivan t-shirt for Grand Cayman
Iguana promotion, Cyclura pinguis art for the San Diego Zoo, the
logo for the Turtle Survival Alliance, the Dr. Frederic Frye
Veterinary Medicine Award, the Utila Iguana t-shirt, header art
for the Anegada Wildlife News, a t-shirt for conservation of igua-
nas on Saba, a “Save the Andros Iguana” poster for Chuck Knapp
that he distributes on Andros, and cartoons for the Blue Iguana
Recovery Program. One of Joel’s most recent artistic endeavors is
the design for the King Blue Bobblehead figure, the head of
which is based on his meticulously detailed Blue Iguana bust. He
also helped build head-start cages for Cyclura on Anegada.

For his own enjoyment, Joel has created wonderfully detailed
sculptures of various species of iguanas (as well as the occasional
monitor, tortoise, and snake). These are scale-for-scale representa-
tions and each is hand-painted. The elegant sculptures can be
viewed at www.scaledArt.com. I’m the proud owner of two.

Attached to their home in San Rafael is the RWH
Cyclurium, a walk-in habitat for a male Cyclura cornuta and a
male C. lewisi x C. caymanensis hybrid (the two guys are sepa-
rated by a wooden door). Joel and his 4-year-old son Mason
check on the iguanas every morning; with Joel’s enthusiasm for
iguanas, I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before baby daughter
Avery makes it a threesome.

110 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2005 HENDERSON

Joel receiving hugs from “Dino,” John and Sandy Binns’s Black Throat
Monitor (Varanus albigularis ionidesi) in 2001.

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Joel and his son Mason in the “RWH Cyclurium” holding “Andros”
(Rhinoceros Iguana, Cyclura cornuta) with “Duke” (Grand Cayman
Blue and Cuban Iguana hybrid, Cyclura lewisi x nubila) on the other
side of the screened cage.

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Joel was an IRCF team member refurbishing the Anegada Head-
starting Facility in 2001.

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IGUANA  •  VOLUME 12, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2005 111PROFILE OF JOEL FRIESCH  

An illustration of an Utila Iguana (Ctenosaura bakeri) that Joel created
to support the Conservation Program for the Utila Iguana.

At an IRCF-sponsored educational event at Marin Formative, San
Rafael, in April 2005, Joel displays “Duke,” his Grand Cayman Blue
and Cuban Iguana hybrid (Cyclura lewisi x nubila) to young attendees.

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Cyclura lewisi population survey in June 2002 (from left: Joe
Wasilewski, Alberto Jaramillo, Fred Burton, and Joel Friesch).

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Joel arriving in Tortola, BVI in 2001waiting to clear immigration on
the way to Anegada.

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Illustration of a Saba 
Black Iguana (Iguana iguana) 
that will be used to promote public
awareness of the unique iguanas of Saba,
Netherlands Antilles.

Illustration of a Rhinoceros Iguana, Cyclura cornuta.

Illustration of a Stout Iguana, Cyclura pinguis.




