Upon graduating from Ringling School of Art and Design in 1980 I
headed back home to New Milford, Connecticut, expecting to get Illustration
work right away in New York. Block after block I carried a huge portfolio of
original art, heading to book publishers, magazines, to hopefully get
representation from one of the big art representatives.
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| Brunch |
That didn’t happen right
away, in fact, it took me 10 years to go full time as an illustrator. I often said,
“smarter people would have found something better to do”, but this was my
course whether predestined or stubborn.
In 1982 I met the love of my life and
married Deborah Marie Jajer in 1984. In the fall of '87 our first daughter,
Allison was 10 months old and Deb was expecting our second daughter, Caitlin, so
I decided to go full time as an Illustrator after years of working full time
surveying for my father. I did odd Illustration jobs at night and weekends. We
lived above my in-laws, so we had built in baby sitters, plus rent control.
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| Rhythm |
It was a calculated risk,
because I had one big job to illustrate a brochure for these new town houses in
New Milford, Connecticut, where we lived. My first meeting with the developer
and ad agency was a disaster. My sketches were awful. I left there thinking my
one chance to go full time and I just blew it. They gave me two weeks to get
new sketches and bring them to the agency in New Haven. I used my
mother-in-law’s knitting room as a studio and decided to go right to finishes,
because this was my last chance.
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| Against the Tide |
Two weeks later, I drove my
MG down to New Haven with 4 rolled up loose canvases and walked into the agency
to a group of nervous looking art directors and designers. Like rolling the
dice, I rolled out the canvases and they loved them! Driving back home was one
of the happiest moments of my life. It meant I could go full time as a real
illustrator, as least for a few months.
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| Craft and Light |
My dad gave me a storage
space at his surveying business for my studio. Now the building he rented was a
former Funeral Home. My first studio was an embalming room! It didn’t creep me
out because I was painting full time.
I knocked around doing all
sorts of Illustrations after the town house brochure. I did a magazine cover of
a giant screw floating through space for $200.
It was my introduction into
Children’s Books that put me on an 18-year career in publishing. I loved illustrating
“the story”. I had to paint everything under the sun. Where I honed my craft
was during my two-year project illustrating the
six books for American Girls, “Kaya”.
After that project I got a lot more jobs illustrating not only Native
Americans, but historic subject matter from Lewis and Clark to the Holocaust.
At first, I didn’t know how I was going to illustrate one of mankind’s worst
moments. I decided I was going to be brutally honest, yet with a window of
hope. In these dark times heroes like Irena Sendler and Simon Wiesenthal showed
their true light.
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| Hooked |
Illustrating the story was
great fun and educational too. In high school I thought Lewis and Clark were
just two guys on a hike! I had the great privilege to work with some wonderful
authors and try to tell their story without words. If the kids could figure out
what’s going on in the painting, I felt I did my job.
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| Buffalo Soldier |
Around 2016 my non-fiction
books were being produced cheaper with stock photos and art. It kind of
sterilized history for kids. I knew years before that Illustration was going
away, which is why I started cultivating the Fine Art gallery scene.
In my Illustration career I
knew I was going to get paid but with galleries you produce a painting in the
hopes you might get paid. Finally,
the right collector walks into the gallery and pays a lot of money to live with
your painting. No greater compliment to an artist.
I would supplement my income
with teaching workshops and attending plein air paint outs. Paint outs invite
20-50 artists from all over the country to document the community’s area. These
events have popped up all over the United States by a 15-year Plein Air
movement, supported by the baby boomers and Plein Air Magazine. There is even a
Plein Air Convention.
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| Silver Run Summer |
Going outside and setting up
my easel has helped me improve my painting a great deal. You must learn to
choose, edit and capture the essence of a scene. A couple bought my plein air
study and asked me to write down my inspiration for painting the scene. What
started out as a paragraph turned into a full page. I remembered a great deal
from that 2-hour time.
In East Point, Florida, I was painting an oyster boat
along the edge of Rt. 98. This disheveled guy came up to watch me paint and he
told me he built the boat I was painting. He fished, built boats, and houses
his whole life. He worked his butt off to pay for his sons chemo in Tallahassee.
I thought sometimes painting outside is not so much about painting, but the
experience.
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| Yonder Comes Willy Boy |
So today I paint what moves
me and have been in direct contact with. I start the story and the viewer can
finish it.
This is Week 7 of Artists Tell Their
Stories. Thank you for reading and sharing Bill’s story today. To connect
with Bill and see more of his work, please visit the following links:
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