TribeLA Magazine Acrostic Interview with William Wray
T
agline: Give yourself and your work a tagline.
Superhero’s, Landscapes and Abstracts, Oh My.
R
est: How do you spend your time off?
Yoga, gym, naps, art shows, bike rides. And not enough vacations.
I
nfluence: What effect do you hope to have on us?
I have been influenced by many artistic disciplines, having worked in Comic Books, Animation and Fine art. I think of my work as a combination of narrative, objective and non-objective. Consequently, I don’t fit cleanly into any single category. Like most artists, what I want to do is engage the viewer emotionally.
B
ack: If you could choose a past literary/art/music movement to be a part of, which would you choose?
The dawn of modern art—I would have loved to have tried to keep Picasso’s influence from not destroying Representational art, but merging with and complementing it, as it did for too short a period of time.
E
nergy: What fires you up?
Raving about the friction between conceptual and narrative art on Facebook and the saving of our environment, even as I drive a car and pollute the world with oil painting solvents.
L
os Angeles: Where is your favorite place in Los Angeles? Where would you take visitors? If you could defend the city in one sentence to someone who doubts it, what would you say?
I always loved old Hollywood Blvd., and really enjoyed hiking in the Hollywood Hills when I lived there. Most likely, I would take visitors to an art museum like the Getty. Hate the traffic, not the city.
A
dvice: What is the best advice you’ve received? What is the best advice you can give?
Outdated career advice on being the inaccessible artist. That didn’t fit my contrary nature as I often do the opposite of what smart people tell me. So I built my career in Social Media by being totally available to the public. •Expect repeated short-term failure in your career. Think about your long-term goals. Don’t have children if art is the most important thing in your life, unless you are wealthy.
A
ura: How would you describe your energy, style, etc.?
Multi-disciplined categories, but always striving for honest feeling with expressive power in technique.
R
oom: Where in your home do you work? If not in your home, where do you feel most compelled to create?
I have an art studio above my garage and I work outside. •Going to a good art show or being in nature recharges the art batteries.
T
ools: What do you prefer to work with, physically and otherwise?
I use all the normal tools, but love to scrape back into the surface below.
I
ndulgence: What is your favorite indulgence? Do you cook? What is your specialty meal? What is your favorite restaurant in LA where you indulge yourself?
Dark chocolate and peanut butter cookies. •No my girlfriend Sharon is a master. •I love a great soup. •I guess Sugarfish, although I miss the old Nazowa in Studio City.
S
pecial: Who or what holds a special place in your heart? How does this factor into your creative process?
My girl friend Sharon and my parrot Mookie. •Sharon is good at judging if a painting is any good. Mookie just distracts me.
T
ime: What is your all-time favorite piece of writing/art/music you’ve created?
I love making any good painting, but I think the Superhero’s are my strongest concept. My Writing would be my lurid oversized art comic: Happy Comics, a very dark humored one-shot book published by 3A.
Thank you William!
Reach out, check out, follow and engage with William at these links:
http://williamwray.com
https://www.facebook.com/william.wray3
https://www.instagram.com/william_wray/
https://tribelamagazine.com/art-today-09-16-17-william-wray-an-earlier-painting-of-one-of-my-favorite-hollywood-subjects/
ART TODAY 09.15.17: Monolith, the painting and book by William Wray
New Year ART REVIEW of “The Breakup” by Super Hero William Wray – watch the artist paint
ART TODAY 09.10.17: Colors by William Wray with introduction by Chris Bonno