|
|
|
BILL WARRELL • born 1953 • Washington, DC
painter • photographer • filmmaker • producer
STATEMENT: Back in 1976 I returned to Washington after attending the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) to make something happen in my provincial hometown. I had grown up here and attended Montgomery College studying very traditional painting and printmaking techniques with a passion for art history. My technique is informed by an early fascination with the stellar collection of Dutch masters at the National Gallery of Art. Focused on learning their thin glaze painting techniques and what I called “gaze painting” subject matter. With each of my paintings I attempt to capture a true spirit and moment in the lives of fellow artists, inspired both by their art and my memories.
In the early 70s NASCAD was a hotbed of conceptual art with artists coming from the US and Europe on a visiting faculty basis. Joseph Beuys, Vito Acconci, Bruce Nauman, John Baldesarri, and Sol LeWitt, all came through along with a new generation of experimental composers and musicians (Anthony Braxton, Philip Glass, Steve Reich) performing in the school’s gallery. While studying with painter Eric Fischl I became fascinated with making and projecting video-tape, which was all the rage as multi-media became the new artists’ buzzword. I returned home in 76 with a mission of opening d.c.space and the eyes and ears of our patrons to a world of diverse culture and multidisciplinary work.
My life-long career in the arts and very personal relationships with many artists have been the inspiration and subject matter of my own portrait paintings and filmmaking for over 30 years.
|
|
 
|
|
|
