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William Solomon, born in 1950 in San Diego, CA, has been painting
professionally for 35 years. Twenty of those years, however, were
dedicated to the Southern California film industry. He has more
recently returned his attention to his personal work, and has produced
a large, distinct, and growing body of art.
As a person, he is concerned with the geopolitical climate and also personal peace. As an artist, his work reflects who he is and how he exists in the world. In his art, he expresses his concerns for the human condition, his hopes for mankind, his inner turmoil, his angst and his desires for happiness. One of his primary goals for his work is that the viewer will think about what he has thought and felt in making the art. To paraphrase Kojiro Tomita, "art is where the joy of the maker intersects with the wonderment of the beholder." In addition to painting, he is interested in sculpture and conceptual artwork that challenges many of his audience's preconceived notions about what it means to be a work of art. He counts Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Chuck Close, and Van Gogh as his most admired influences. Very much a product of Southern California, his ideas are informed by a broad range of cultural influences and the amalgamation of his life's experiences: from Rauschenberg's aerial photographs to the Hollywood aesthetic, from Zen Buddhism and Judaism to pervasive Los Angeles stereotypes, from suburban culture to the hippie movement, from Joni Mitchell to gangsta rap. Besides art, Bill enjoys being outdoors, hiking, and spending time with his children. |