billzine

Check out my new webpage at billwhorrallart.com

It has been a whopping 5 months since posted in this blog. I did one and went at it through the wrong route so one photo went out too big and bumped the bullets on the right side Hopefully I am re learning the tools to be neater. Anyway that one is just below this one. I am keen on a dialogue with other artists so please feel free to drop a line. Right now I am working (as I have for years) on images from nature. I would love to do a show of these sometime. I am wrestling with the ongoing issue of representational vs. abstraction, or more to the point, how to resolve the melding/interpretation of this problem. I have overlaid shapes that are key design system shape (like a circle, triangle, meander, etc.) and finding shapes (especially in water) that can be brought to the fore.

This is a painting I made after seeing a white arch bridge in Japan. The arch is an extremely important natural design element.

How to resolve the problem of going beyond realism and retaining the imagery that you find interesting? I have dealt with this issue from the beginning. I can do strict abstraction and strict realism but I am not interested in going there. I relate best to the work of artists in between, especially Vincent. After writing and deleting several hand wringing discussions with myself I conclude that the problem is a blessing, I will just keep trying to catch the rabbit and I hope I don’t.

Nature offs a few hints, the shapes in water are fascinating because they keep changing. In photos you can see an amazing system of interwoven shapes and designs. These are visual prompts to exploit and investigate.  That word investigate-it is a key word for me, making is the process and result of an on going investigation of visual problems.

After the first cave painting the next guy took a look and added something new, but used something he just saw in the old painting. So it goes. In my opinion the real question is not your style or technique, but the ideas/concepts you are putting out there. It seems to me some of the “fresh, amazing and totally new” stuff is actually gimmick work and carries very little or no concept. The painting I just finished for Indiana’s bicentennial is going to suggest Jasper Johns because of the technique, using stencils. But I am not concerned because I believe the ideas overcome that.

Once, when I was in school I told one of my professors about an idea I had but expressed concern that it would be too obvious that a source was another artist. He said, “Do it anyway, since you are doing it the thing will turn out differently.” He was right. So my free advice is to do it anyway. The big mistake is to not do anything.

JUMP 24″ x 36′ acrylic on canvas