Larry Willis
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We are bombarded with imagery from numerous quarters in today’s world. There are movies, TV, magazines, signs and a plethora of art and artists. Then there are the non visual things we take in, such as music and what we read. It is impossible to not be influenced by all of this. So I take in what interests me, and as Degas said, let memory and imagination work on it. Thus, elements of both high and pop culture, history of art and the world along with music mingle in my mind and come out in the images I create.
Through the years my “style” seems to keep changing. Yet while it may not be obvious to others for me there is a continuum. I have always created because I enjoyed doing it. While art can make one think, I believe joy should be the main motivation in creation. People look at someone like Van Gogh and say he suffered for his art, yet I feel he had to be enjoying what he was doing, that his art eased his suffering. The existence of the arts eases ours.
Through the years my “style” seems to keep changing. Yet while it may not be obvious to others for me there is a continuum. I have always created because I enjoyed doing it. While art can make one think, I believe joy should be the main motivation in creation. People look at someone like Van Gogh and say he suffered for his art, yet I feel he had to be enjoying what he was doing, that his art eased his suffering. The existence of the arts eases ours.
Larry Willis's Images
Born 1948 in Phoenix, Arizona: Lives in Chandler, Arizona
Primary medium – Acrylic on canvas
Latest Exhibitions:
"AIGA Art Auction" Bragg's Pie Factory, Phoenix, AZ, 2008
“The Modern West” @ Central Gallery, Burton Barr Library, Phoenix. October, 2007
Representative:
Toast Gallery, Paris, France
Has had work exhibited at dozens of galleries and art centers from Maine to California, Including the University of Arizona; Santa Maria Art Museum, Sanrta Maria, California; The Tempe Art Center, Tempe AZ; Desert Caballeros Museum in Wickenburg, AZ; Paris Gibson Museum of Art, Great Falls Montana; Winchester Center Gallery, Las Vegas, Nevada; Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine; The Mesa Southwest Museum in Mesa, AZ; Foothills Art Center in Golden Colorado ; Chandler Center for the Arts, Chandler, AZ. Was twice selected to show at the Southwestern Invitational Exhibition and Selected three times for The Arizona Biennial at the Tucson Museum of Art.
Has been honored with two one-man shows at the Arizona State Capitol Building in Phoenix, a one-man show in the Phoenix Theater Lobby at the Phoenix Art Museum, a one man show at the Cafe Espress Gallery in Flagstaff, Arizona and a one-man show at Schefflin Hall in Tombstone. Has been featured in three exhibitions with the Arizona Commission for the Arts.
Works have been used in True West & Wild West Magazines.
Was featured in Phoenix New Times in an article about the Phoenix Art scene. Reviewed in The Arizona Republic and the Tucson Daily Star.
“Our best artist in residence at True West.” – Bob Boze Bell
“Work that shows consistent promise” – Deborah Laake, New Times
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LARRY WILLIS: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Like many artists I can’t remember when I didn’t draw. I remember as a young pre-school child drawing on the white cardboard inserts that came in my fathers shirts that my mother would give me for that purpose.
Fast forward…
In High school I began performing in rock bands. This carried on through the 1970’s. In my late twenties I decided to give up what I considered a young mans game and turned to painting. Some of the guys I was in bands with went on to work with a member of the Kinks and Michael Jackson. Maybe I was wrong.
Just the same, having misspent my youth chasing the rock & roll dream, that medium has continued to influence my paintings in different ways. Sometimes it’s obvious and sometimes not. It came to me recently why my favorite shape for a canvas is square. It’s the shape of an album cover.
When I began to paint in Ernest in the early 1980’s I was doing southwest themes. With this work I got first place in painting in the first juried show I entered. I soon changed to a dialog with old masters about the decaying nature of art. From there through the 80’s I carried on with a dialog about the transient nature of pop music and icons of the ordinary.
During this time I was a member of the Phoenix Artists Coalition (PAC), a loose affiliation of artist who came together to promote contemporary art in Phoenix. Some of the other artists in the PAC group included Sheila Kollasch, Janet DeBerge Lange, Jeff Falk, Annie Lopez, Marilyn Szabo and Peter Mars. Out of PAC would emerge the genesis of Art Detour.
In the 90’s I took a detour into doing illustrations for True West & Wild West Magazines. From being an emerging artist I became a submerged artist for a time, (I rarely entered my work in exhibitions unless invited to). From there I moved into doing paintings about the similarities between Heroes of the old west and rock icons in the early 2000s. Emerging again.
I recently went to Paris for the second time. This has sent me off on another artistic excursion, a further dialog with the artists of the past about the art continuum. Paris since the Second World War has ceased being the great center of artistic activity it once was. But, it still holds its heart. It’s museums have much of the western worlds great art, it has inspiring architecture and haut couture. Just to walk the back streets of Montmartre is inspiring. To walk were so many advancements in modern art took place. As the Cultural Atlas of France States, “…despite the comparative lack of native talent, it is still a city where art is eagerly discussed.” Filmmaker Jonathan Demme said, “Paris nurtures creativity” It works for me. While all of my recent paintings may not overtly display Paris, that since of place inspires them.
I Love Arizona, J'aime Paris