The Art of Bill Fulk 

I am from a tiny town in Southern Indiana, where I grew up sort of an unstructured manner - riding my bike everywhere with my big mutt Butch, going fishing and swimming in Blue River, even built a boat with my cousins to go exploring up and down the river.  I was an only child in a household of older people, where my propensity to draw was encouraged.  For my fourteenth birthday my parents gave me a set of oil paints:  I was hooked.  Living in an area of great rural beauty, I originally painted mostly landscapes.  I read a lot, got good grades, and eventually graduated from High School and started working my way through Indiana University's Fine Arts Department (now the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts).   I was fortunate to have been with some outstanding faculty, including George Rickey, Arthur Deschaies, Seong Moy,  Edward Millman, Dr. Theodore Bowie, Dr. Henry Hope, and Harry Engel.

 

After graduation, I did a hitch in the U.S. Army, serving in several locations, my favorite assignment  being an Intelligence Specialist, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 634th Armored Infantry Battalion, Combat Command A, First Armored Division.  After this, I needed a job, and the airline industry was growing rapidly and needing employees.  I was hired by a major airline, and considered this a day job.  However, it proved challenging and interesting.  I painted only sporadically, as I married a lovely wife and had a couple of really great kids.  Next thing I knew, it was thirtyeight years later, I was a retired systems engineer, and I was re-entering the art world.

 

Educational background - BA in Fine Arts, many additional classes in Computer Science, Computer Network Design, Mathematics, Project management, and Statistics.  After retirement I took refresher art classes.

 

I paint mostly in acrylics, often combining with ink and charcoal, in fairly large format - 36 x 24 or somewhat larger.  I am fortunate in that I can paint whatever I feel like at the time:  you will notice that I have painted in more than one genre.  I was told by an art teacher for whom I had a lot of respect that "consistency is the mark of a small mind."   When a piece is "done" it sits on an easel across the studio for a time, until I am quite decided that it is as good as I can make it.  It will get more work if it needs it.  (I have been known to work again on a piece several years old). Occasionally, a piece gets painted over and recycled at this time.  There is a nice large studio in my home, with a stereo (for my pretty extensive jazz collection), pool table (popular with my grandchildren), reading area, book collection, and a comfortable dog bed for my Westie.