wilmaking@gmail.com
15852016063
2923 Eastway Drive, Columbia, SC, 29209
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
I spend several hours a day doing what I have always loved and have dedicated time to these days – painting. As a professor in commercial design and public relations for 30+ years, I didn’t always have the flexibility that I enjoy as a conceptual painter, although I enjoyed telling the stories of organizations, peoples, and communities. With both an art and journalism background, I am as much a storyteller as I am an artist.
I enjoy telling my stories as well as those of people I have met along the way. An avid nonfiction reader, I try to incorporate a level of authenticity through descriptive and narrative detail in my paintings as I am writing or retelling a story through my art to give it broader meaning and, consequently, to build relationships.
I share my love of art and my skills as an artist to elevate the status of individuals and communities. The most important work I’ve done was commissioned to hang in private homes. Such works include a painting for a fellow parishioner who could no longer attend Eucharistic Adoration as she had done so for years, so wanted to create a prayer room in her home; a painting requested by a nine-year-old that represented his longing to hug his grandmother while she suffered with the shingles; and, a painting from my photographs of neighborhoods in Italy for a third-generation Italian family who had never been there; a painting for a young woman who has recently been able to purchase a house after living in a motel for two years. Of equal significance to me — five of my paintings hang in the office of a mental health counselor, and another one, an office in a Ronald MacDonald’s House.
My medium of choice is acrylics on canvas. I love experimenting with color and texture and am steadfast to the details and a level of authenticity.
Famed author Toni Morrison said, “At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough,” but until then, I paint!
ARTIST’S BIO:
M.A. in JOURNALISM, Texas Southern University Advertising/Public Relations, Organizational Communication Minor
B.A. in ART, University of South Carolina Studio Art, Advertising Journalism Minor
NON-CREDIT COURSEWORK: St. Bernard’s School of Ministry and Theology, Pittsford, NY;
COURSERA CERTIFICATES: Arts and Heritage Management; Managing Fashion and Luxury Companies; Managing Food and Beverage Companies; and, International Leadership and Organizational Behavior – Università Bocconi; International Organizations Management – University of Geneva; The Changing Global Order – Universiteit Leiden; How to Change the World – Wesleyan University; Leadership in 21st Century Organizations (June 2017)– Copenhagen Business School
HIGHER EDUCATION Teaching
Full Time
Adjunct
SUMMARY