DREI FRAGEN with Bill Cox
Artist Bill Cox shares his artistic wisdom.
Each Wednesday I ask a different artist the same three questions.
This week’s artist is a huge inspiration in my life, I consider him a mentor and he tells a great story or two. His name is Bill Cox.
1. What first sparked your interest in creating art?
I knew I liked drawing because I could create scenarios with pictures much more easily than with words. 'A picture is worth a thousand words.' Humans started communications via pictures right back on the walls of the caves they lived in. Prompted by the shadows and topography of the rock face. You can see how they 'SAW' Bison or Horses in the pattern in the rock and used Charcoal, Calcium Carbonate or mud to colour them in.
I found I could create all the scenes I was excited about, Motorbike Scrambling, Battles, Football Matches Etc in drawings. But the biggest thing was another pupil in the same class who could draw better than me. And I wanted to get as good, or better than him. So I practiced and practiced. His interest waned and he stopped drawing but my interest continued for the rest of my life.
2. What are your regrets?
My biggest regret was that in the year 2000, designated 'The Year Of The Artist', my project was accepted and ALL artist fees, equipment and assistance were going to be paid for. My then-wife, to enable her affair with someone else, managed to use an injunction to have me made homeless. I need not say that it was a totally spurious reason sighted but an injunction was given and I was made homeless. I had to respond to the letter that offered me the opportunity to make my reputation with the response that I was no longer in a position to deliver the project. This destroyed my career. You will understand that the above information can not be opened to public scrutiny. It is strictly private.
3. What wisdom would you offer someone beginning their art career, or exploring art for the first time at any stage in life?
As stated previously, ART was before writing and developed alongside language. Before mathematics alongside counting. It was the primary method of passing on culture down the generations. How we hunted, Celebrated our kills and enjoyed our meat. It is so much earlier than the next forms of communication as to be FUNDAMENTAL to our personas. Exploration of art takes us MUCH DEEPER than any of the other blandishments of culture. I allows us to engage in our own human CREATIONS. It Formulates our Tastes, Educates our Perception, Generates our Thinking, Creates our Hierarchies of Operation and Allows us to Engage in the deepest possible Communication with our Peers. It makes us Capable of the Organised Understanding of Media, Method and Message. Essentially it Allows us to Give the Answer to the Problem of Meaning in a Culturally Authentic way. Plus it is Stimulating, Exciting, Utterly Absorbing Personally Fruitful and a Totally Bottomless Pit of Inspiration and Pleasure. What's not to Like?
Above: Cargo Cult. Ultraviolet Installation.
The above expressions are copyrighted to me W.R.Cocks 2024©️
