The Edmonds art scene is so vibrant, and is becoming such a draw to area art lovers, that it is not unusual for enthusiasts to follow our gallery news and exhibit openings from afar.
Which is exactly how Mukilteo artist Bill Ball discovered the Edmonds art scene. This energetic and imaginative artist is inspired by such artists as Mark Tobey and Helmi Dagmar Juvonen. The work of these two legendary artists, (along with the curated pieces of Guy Anderson, Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan, and other artists affiliated with the Northwest School Movement) grabbed Ball’s attention this past November.
Bill was among those gathered at the Frances Anderson Center to view the collection curated by artist Marni Muir, in collaboration with the Arts Commission and the Edmonds Arts Festival Foundation.
It was at that exhibit opening that Bill – and his wild “Psychedelic Hat” – caught my attention. And, he definitely is one to get the public’s attention, as validated in this recent post from Bill on his Facebook page:
For the last two weekends I’ve been out and about, becoming [a favored] photographic subject . . . I think that it’s my stylish “Psychedelic Grandma” jacket coupled with a top hat with a flower on top of me noggin . . .
At Cassera Arts Premier last weekend I was mobbed by a group of people who wanted their pictures [taken] with me. I had no clue who they were, but I played along and we all had a blast.
It’s fun and good times entertaining the public either with my live performance art or just with my duds. I sometimes wonder what goes through people’s minds when they first get a load of me. I hope that I can bring more joy to the world than sadness.
In the months that followed the Northwest School exhibit, Artfully Edmonds thought about how fun it might be to track an art career from its inception. So, come along on an art discovery!
Artfully Edmonds is proud to host the first mainstream media interview of the artist who signs his work, “Fireball Bill”
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AE: Bill, first and foremost, thank you for taking the time out of your artfully creative day to grant My Edmonds News this exclusive interview.
I first became aware of your art style preferences this past November at the Francis Anderson Center. You spoke that evening of your admiration for the work of Mark Tobey, and I want to talk to you about that – and many other topics:
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AE: How did you first realize you have an affinity for art?
BB: I started drawing in pencil and pastels from art supplies my parents gave me for Christmas. I was 5 years old.
Throughout my early life I created art of some sort. I was enrolled in art classes from grade school through community college. After college my life took other directions.
It wasn’t until Burning Man 2013 that I reconnected with art again. There was a temporary city built on the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to accommodate the weeklong arts and music event. In one of the camps at Burning Man there was a temporary wood frame building with cans of paint all around it. The idea was for the community to paint its walls.
I thought, “Hey, why not? I’ve wanted to paint my whole life and here’s my opportunity to do so. I first painted this vibrant cross with rings of color radiating from it. I finished that project and left to go back to my camp. I returned the next day to see it had been painted over with graffiti.
With this loss I began to revisit the recent loss of my entire family. Could I heal myself with my creativity? I picked up a one-inch brush and for hours threw paint – in pain and anger; using color to process the feelings and heal.
I finished painting, stepped back and internalized what I had created. I smiled, laughed, and cried all at once realizing I had unlocked a hidden artist. I came home from Burning Man and converted my living room into my new art studio.
One year later I was invited back to paint a mural at Burning Man’s Center Camp.
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AE: You describe yourself as a “self-taught artist”. However your knowledge of the historic periods of art, and styles of art form – is impressive. How have you learned so much?
BB: While at Burning Man working on my art, a campmate said, “Hey, that painting looks like a Jackson Pollock.”
I had to come home and find out who this Jackson Pollock fellow was. I went to the library to pick up a book about Pollock and several other artists. I began watching YouTube videos of other artist. Then I went to the library to check out art films about artist and art from different eras. I did a lot of Internet research about the different styles of art. I also began going to art museums and art galleries on a regular basis.
As for being self-taught, all I had to do was to pick up the tools and begin somewhere. (I had no idea where to start or how to start.) So, it all began as an experiment in color. I saw the similarities in my work and Pollock’s work. In the beginning I knew that I had a gift for understanding what to do in order to create art.
My understanding of what colors to use together came naturally. I began learning how to use the brushes to create certain effects. I did a lot of experimenting in order to learn new things. I have developed new ways of applying paint to canvas.
I’m always striving to learn more about the past of art and striving to create the future of art.
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AE: Were your parents artistically inclined? In what manner were you challenged, or encouraged to be yourself and pursue your ambitions?
BB: I think that both of my parents, in their younger years, must have been creative.
I remember seeing an etching on copper plating that my mother had done in the 1970s of one of the Disney characters. I recall my dad drawing dragons for me when I was growing up.
My parents were on a bowling league while I was a child growing up in Hawaii in the 1950s. To keep me occupied at the bowling alley, my dad would pull from his brief case a few pieces of typing paper, a pencil and magazine. He demonstrated what he had in mind for me to occupy my time by laying a piece of paper over the image of, say, the Marlboro Man. He traced the image. He gave me a fresh piece of paper and asked me to draw as he had done. He returned to bowling as I took the pencil into hand and drew the cowboy. He came back to the table a little while later and had found I had free-handed the cowboy drawing.
He began yelling to my mother to come see what I had done. Boy! I thought I was in trouble for sure the way he was yelling, “Get over here to see what your son has done!” I hadn’t traced it like he wanted me to and I thought I was in big trouble!
Mom came over and they both just gazed at it not saying anything. They kept hat set of drawings for years and were always trying to get me to continue on in my drawing.
Dad wanted me to enter the county fair one year but the pressure was too much and I just froze up and could not draw anything. It wasn’t until all these years later that I realized what they had seen in me as a young artist.
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AE: You’ve taken on the 25/5×5 25 Challenge – and Congratulations! – You’ve come through as a success! What inspired you during the past 25 days? How did you decide on your subject matter?
BB: I decided on my subject manner just by how I felt. I revisited a few ideas that I have done before, but on larger canvas. I thought that they would be interesting on a smaller scale. It was the size of the canvas that was the real challenge to me especially for the drip paintings where I drip the paint onto the canvas to make patterns and designs. The bigger canvas gives the paint the room that it needs to flow and move around on. But the smaller canvases for this project gave me some great opportunities to expand my abilities.
Some of the subject matter was inspired by the Abstracts of legends like Mark Tobey, Gerhard Richter, Jackson Pollock, and Leo Kenney, just to name a few.
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AE: You are drawn (no pun intended) to the art of the Easter Islands? How did that inspiration arise?
BB: I was inspired by the art of the Easter Islands as a kid while living in Hawaii. I saw a lot of Islander art everywhere while growing up. Of course there are many examples contained in books and in documentaries.
Books on Moai statues I read as a child particularly fascinated me. Then later, as a young man, I would sit for hours watching documentaries about the Easter Islands. Their shapes and forms have always stuck in my head.
Polynesian art has always been very fun for me to look at. I have owned several Tiki carvings over the years.
Northwest Mystics
Earlier in the interview you mentioned that we had met at the exhibit for the Northwest School in Edmonds in November. These artists (also referred to as the Northwest Mystics) also inspire me.
Like these artists had done, I go within myself to find some of my inspirations. I meditate; do creative visualizations, astral projection, and lucid dreaming to find the creative source within myself to connect to. I like to create moods and dream like atmospheres within my paintings. Mark Tobey has some of the same “feel” to his painting as well.
I strive to create something that a person can get lost in.
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AE: Your show-calendar is filling up! Where can admirers of your style find your work over the next two months; and at what Facebook page can we follow your successes?
BB: I am a participant in the 25/ 5×5 25 Challenge hosted by ARTspot (408 Main St.)
My entries will remain on display at ARTspot through to May 20th.
Additionally, on May 9 from 6-9 p.m. I’m showing art at the Georgetown Art Attack sponsored by Zippy’s (9614 14th Ave SW, Seattle). The artwork I have in mind for Georgetown Art Attack are from my “Creatures of Imagination and Nightmares” collection. This collection was inspired, in part, from watching horror films as a young adult.
Then, on June 4 and continuing through June, I will be presenting larger works of abstract expressionism and possibly some contemporary pieces.
I’m very proud of my recent Everett Library exhibit at which I sold several pieces.
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AE: How can we keep up with you, what do you have coming up on your exhibition calendar?
I have shows booked through August; so this is developing into a spectacular year; with some months being booked with exhibits at two locations.
My reach is expanding. So far this year I have shown art in Bellingham, Mount Vernon, Anacortes, Everett, and in Seattle. I have shows coming up at the Museum of Northwest Art fundraiser auction in La Conner, the Georgetown Art Attack, plus Art Walk Edmonds. I have a solo show at the art space Anacortes Music Channel (which used to be Anchor Art Space) for the Anacortes arts festival. I also have a show at the Lincoln Theater in Mount Vernon, and coming up in Seattle I’ll be showing in the Capitol Hill art walk.
I have let go of the fear in my life and am going for this dream of mine.
My art is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BillBallfireball
Flicker at https://www.flickr.com/photos/98788181@N07/
On YouTube you can find me demonstrating a live drip painting of a flower.
I can be commissioned for an abstract and murals. I’m available for live painting at events also.
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AE: Well, you certainly busy! Artfully Edmonds will bid you adieu for now and catch you further down the line. We wish you well. Thank you for agreeing to this interview.
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Art Walk Edmonds
Yes! It’s time to stroll, sip, and stare into the depths of whimsical, classical, and bold art! After all, it’s what we do here in Edmonds every Third Thursday.
Galleries are open, wall space in shops have been cleared and hung with exciting visual “candy” meant to inspire and arouse your senses.
Who’s displaying where this month? Place a “bookmark on your phone” to know how to plan an Edmonds-Kind-of ARTS Evening!
Dragonfire Neighborhood Gallery
529 Dayton St.
For Art Walk Edmonds, Dragonfire, the warmest of all Edmonds’ art hosts, is featuring the art of Kelly Sooter this month. Sooter’s new contemporary collection, “Visions of Atmosphere,” is grabbing the attention of art collectors in the Seattle-Tacoma runway, and well beyond!
Sooter was wise to accept space at this gallery – known as much for its gracious gallery director as it is for its cutting-edge panache. Want to add hip to your decor? Want today what everyone will be collecting tomorrow? If you stopped me on the sidewalk and asked me, I’d say, “Make mine Dragonfire!”
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Gallery North
401 Main St.
Just look at Erika Sheehan’s “Happy Camper.” Doesn’t her work make you want to just sink into her colorful, imaginatively set scenes? Congratulations to Erika on the success she’s enjoying.
Susan Swapp’s show “Trails and Tails“ which My Edmonds News has featured in earlier columns, will continue at the gallery through April 30.
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Make Mine Tapas and Togas!
The idea of Demetri’s pairing with Driftwood does have a certain flair, wouldn’t you agree?
And a pairing is exactly what these two popular attractions have cooked up to celebrate the theatre run of “A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To the Forum” (Forum).
Demetri’s Woodstone Taverna
101 Main St.
Driftwood Players
Wade James Theatre
950 Main St.
Driftwood Players and Demetri’s are offering a “Dinner & Show” option with the purchase of a $40 theatre ticket for a Forum pre-show dinner (Thursday-Saturday shows) and a post-show dinner (Sundays).
If you have already purchased tickets and wish to add the dinner for $20, please call the theatre office at 425-774-9600 or visit the online ticket box office.
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Great Upcoming Events to
Mark on Your Calendar!
April 29, 2015
6 ~ 9 pm
Fortaleza Private Wine Lockers
123 2nd Ave. S.
Painting in the most sophisticated setting while sipping wine – just imagine how the creative juices will flow!
Make a date to discover Fortaleza Private Wine Lockers at their paint-and-sip party and you will receive professional step-by-step art instruction while enjoying the finest selections of wine. This is an opportunity to make a party of it!
Pre-registration is required for this sophisticated 21-and-over event.
Phone Fortaleza today for your party’s reservation 425-522-2576.
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It’s Not to Soon to
Get Ready for
A Parade of Vintage Toys
Shoreline Conference Center
18560 1st Ave. N.E.
Shoreline
Saturday, May 9
10 a.m.-3 p.m.
The Seattle Doll & Toy Collector’s Club is sponsoring their favorite fundraiser, the Seattle Doll & Toy Market. Few shows offer such a wide variety of antiques and collectibles, including Action figures, Barbie dolls, American Girl dolls, and French fashion dolls, and much more.
Isn’t it a perfect time to find that perfect outfit you’ve been searching for to expand the wardrobe of your collectible doll, or to add to your Star Wars collection?
In addition to the wonderful treasures offered, the Seattle Doll & Toy Collector’s Club is working on arrangements to have an Antiques Roadshow appraiser on hand to help identify and set a value for your keepsake and heirloom dolls and toys.
A doll repair specialist will also be at the show to restring your doll or to lend advice about more extensive repairs.
Seattle Doll & Toy Collectors Club is a non-profit group dedicated to the Historical Study and Preservation of Dolls & Toys. Their treasury helps sponsor worthy causes like the Wounded Warrior Project, Northwest Harvest, Operation Smile and the Red Cross.
Show contact information: Joy Hill 425 712-1575 or email: Trevino746@aol.com
— By Emily Hill
Emily Hill is the author of two novels and a short story collection. She also writes the “Lynnwood Lifestyle” column for Lynnwood Today. Emily is retired from a career in public information and news media relations. If you would like your event listed, or featured, in Artfully Edmonds, Emily invites you to contact her at arts@myedmondsnews.com.
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