| Ancient History of William Ground |
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| November 2001 |
| I was born in the panhandle town of Lubbock, Texas, and moved around a lot as the second child of four in a young Air Force family. My first recollection of art is in the public schools of Enid, Oklahoma. I vividly remember painting snowmen in a winter scene. Another recollection is that of drawing horses with my brothers and sister. We would draw horses on paper, color them with crayons, cut them out, and play with them for hours. Public school art sessions would continue to be my arena for learning art for the next several years. In San Angelo, Texas, at the age of ten, I entered an audition for a spot in an after school art program sponsored by the Junior League. I remember being asked to draw a woman in a fancy white dress with black polka dots. I don’t remember the drawing very well, but it must have looked like one of Matisse’s contour drawings. I continued to study for several years with my older brother and later my younger sister, under the instruction of area artist Margaret Stites. I remember Ms. Stites showing me how the human eye was not round but shaped more like an almond; I don’t even think I knew what an almond was back then. The public schools would again be my only formal art instruction for the next three years, in junior high school art classes taught by Mrs. Ruth Mullins. I remember doing a figure drawing during art class and putting an ant’s head on the person. I felt like I couldn’t draw faces very well. So I asked a fellow classmate, Scott Hamilton, an immensely talented artist, to help me out with lessons. He gave me some pointers and said the key was a ‘lot of practice‘. After my parents divorce in 1971 and a move to New England, art instruction went on the back burner. I was still drawing... practicing... but my life went in a different direction. Fast-forward through a twenty-year career in retail and wholesale sales with the highlights of marriage to Mary Whitman (1976) and the birth of our son Daniel (1979). It’s 1996 and I had been through one too many lay-offs. I was looking to do something different, so I enrolled in a Graphic Arts program at the University of New Hampshire. During this time, I met artist Patrick DeCredico, a graphic arts instructor. Pat encouraged me to take a pen and ink techniques course that he would be teaching. Out of all the techniques that Pat showed us, stippling became my immediate favorite. I have won numerous awards in local shows and fairs for my pencil drawings, pen and ink drawings, and oil paintings. My work is in private collections through out the United States. I am a member of the Seacoast Artist’s Association, Kittery Art Association, and Durham Art Association. I currently exhibit online and at my home in Rochester, New Hampshire. |