I have always been an artist. Since the day I first wrapped my little fist around a crayon, I’ve been drawing or painting on something. Unfortunately, I rarely had anyone supporting me or encouraging me to develop my skill and voice as an artist. I was first recognized for my art in junior high. I began winning various scholastic competitions in high school, including the Young Talent in Oklahoma competition. This specific accomplishment allowed me the opportunity to have an art installation in the State Capitol Building.  Although I experienced success, I felt discrimination towards my style (or subject matter) at a very young age. Several times, although I had won the competition, my art was not on public display, rather just a blank wall with a blue ribbon. It was bittersweet. Living in the buckle of the Bible belt, I experienced a lot of pressure to create art of specific subject matter. I briefly tried art school after I graduated but found that I didn't care to be told what to paint and how to paint it. Degas said "painting is easy when you don't know how but very difficult when you do".

My style was inspired primarily by a combination of three other artists, Patrick Nagel, Dennis Mukai and Olivia de Bernardinis, that I have always admired. I have continued to refine and develop my style through the years. Even as my expression matured, it was still rooted in the styles of those same three artists.

I remember the moment I discovered Patrick Nagel. I was just a kid walking through the mall, stopping at an art and poster store. I was barely a teenager. It was love at first sight. Nagel was an iconic artist known for his unique style that blended elements of art deco with pop art. For me, his distinct aesthetic represented the essence of the 1980s, but with timeless appeal. It was complicated in its simplicity. I began developing my style using Nagel as an inspiration. I discovered Dennis Mukai much later. 

Dennis Mukai’s art combined the world of high fashion and feminine beauty with an original sense of style. His palette and gestural brushstrokes evoke the fluid elegance of oriental ink painting. It was pop art. Simplistic, yet bold. Mukai has said that an artist must find their inspiration and passion while never making excuses. He later re-invented himself, but it was his female interpretation that originally drew me to his art. 

It was later that I discovered Olivia de Berardinis. I loved the abstract simplicity of Nagel and Mukai. Olivia, however, was a completely different direction. She is famous for her paintings of women, often referred to as pinup or cheesecake art, which depicts attractive and often scantily clad women in a playful or seductive manner. She presents the beauty of a woman from the perspective of a woman. I feel like her art is more than just pinup art, however. I consider it complicated cheesecake. My early style was an amalgamation of my interpretation of these three artists, but later, I found inspiration in other artists, like Robert Alvarado and Gil Elvgren.

When I first moved from Oklahoma to Florida, I embraced myself as an artist. I finally felt unconstrained. Even though I had gallery showings in several different states before I moved, I had the opportunity to have additional showings after I arrived, including a live art demonstration at the Winter Music Conference on Miami Beach. After a while, though, I morphed more into a graphic artist and photographer, rarely creating any fine art. Sometime after that, various severe health issues slammed the brakes on all of it. At that point, I no longer felt like an artist. Due to my health, I was motivated to get my affairs in order and reassess my life. It was at that time that I realized my fear of being defined only by my illness and bins of used and unused art supplies. I determined that I needed to feel like an artist again.  

Since I have re-dedicated myself to art, I feel revitalized. I needed to remember that being creative is not a hobby but a way of life. The worst enemy of creativity is self-doubt. ...or complacency. Robert Rauschenberg defined success as a worn-down pencil. I am now determined to wear down as many pencils as I possibly can. Art is my oldest and truest friend and I welcome the glorious reunion. I have now re-designed my website accordingly. My previous website was no longer an adequate representation of who I have evolved into as an artist. After much trial and error over the years, I have developed a specific style to my broad creative expression. A website is usually the first impression that people see, and I want it to better represent me both personally and professionally.

A person’s life’s canvas consists of everything and every person that is encountered through the totality of their life. Everyone that you come across and every trial or success you experience adds a brush stroke to your life’s canvas. That being said, I want to thank everyone who has so wonderfully contributed to my life’s canvas. Although abstract, I vow not to stop until it is memorable. I pledge that I will be remembered as an artist with an illness and not as an ill person who created art.

Leave a voice message for William at 305-975-9592 or send an email to: [email protected]